Pilot Light
by Tashojiri
Summary: After witnessing the defeat of Ho-Oh, teenager Kit finds herself in the body of a vulpix. As the changes to her body take her through legends, mysteries and conspiracies, her mind begins a journey towards truth, belonging and salvation. Ch 42 up- really!
1. Prologue

In the blackness of midnight, silhouetted by the giant silver moon, a lone vulpix sits. Guided by forces it knows not what, it sits at the edge of the forest. Below it is another world, tiny flourescent lights sprinkled across the blanket of night, signs of human life, civilisation. Unfit for the city, unsuited to the forest, one question remains on the vulpix's mind. _Where do I belong?_

  
  


**Prologue**

  
  


'In here, in here!' the little girl hissed. As the white coat of the adult disappeared behind the sliding doors, the young tyke managed to slip in behind him. Just in time, a young boy threw himself in after her. The girl held her finger to her lips: "Silence".

The adult had not heard the children. As his heavy boots thumped around the corner, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. They'd made it inside. Now the fun would begin!

Rooms, corridors, and all too many narrow escapes later, the children found themselves in a dark area. A large room of some sort, blanketed in darkness . . . to the human eyes of the children, all that could be seen were shapes, silhouettes, unknown objects. But that only made it all the more exciting.

Light reflected off the silver edges of two barred cages were on a bench at the far side of the room. The children nodded to one another, and crept towards the cages. On closer inspection, they could make out the two dark lumps of the figures inside the cages. One was much larger than the other, but they resembled one another. Large upright ears on either side of long tufts of hair, a flurry of furry tails.

'Wow . . .' the boy breathed, in awe of the creatures. The larger one looked up, and for a moment they made eye contact. Similarly, the girl stood with eyes transfixed on the smaller creature, as it lifted its head to look at her.

'Vul,' it said to her, almost whispering. The girl stared into the creature's deep green eyes, and could almost feel the animal's sorrow as if it were her own. Trapped, alone, afraid.

The girl's thoughts were cut short when a harsh, bird-like shriek sounded from somewhere above the building. A moment later it was followed a chaotic mixture of human voices shouting, heavy footsteps running, alarms sounding.

'It's found us!'

'Everyone, evacuate!'

'But the experiments!'

'It'll hunt us down if we don't abandon them!'

'Everyone, just get out!'

'But . . .'

The two children looked at one another frantically. They hadn't expected any real danger like this to intrude upon their game. Pretending was one thing, but now they were really in trouble.

'If they think I'm gonna leave my life's work behind . . .' a voice grumbled close by. The girl quickly spun around and to realise that she and her friend were no longer alone. A tall, dark figure stood at the door.

'Who's there?' a deep voice boomed. The children threw themselves to the floor and scurried under the bench, as the man entered the room. He flicked the light switch, but nothing happened. 'Darn it! All right, whoever you are, come out!' The children held their breath. The man sighed. 'Maybe it was just the pokémon.'

The voice's owner approached the bench, and the children trembled as the heavy footsteps got closer and closer. But the man mustn't have noticed them, as he reached a hand out towards the larger cage.

'Nine!' snarled the creature inside, and the smaller one yapped its own displeasure.

'You wanna stay here and get killed?' muttered the man. 'You're coming with me!'

He picked up the larger cage and heaved it off the table. The creature inside thrashed its paws and tails violently, baring its sharp teeth at the man.

'Calm down!' hissed the man, but he was powerless against the creature's anger. Unable to keep the cage still, he lost his footing and cried out as he fell flat on his back, the cage landing on his chest. Moaning in pain, he tried to push it off, but combined with the weight of the creature inside, the heavy cage could not be moved.

The children glanced at each other in fear, before taking the opportunity, crawling out from under the bench and leaping to their feet.

'Hey!' the man exclaimed. 'Help me out here!'

Too afraid of being caught, the children ran past the man, heading towards the door. The man grunted angrily and pushed at the cage the was pinning him to the ground, but it was no use.

'Wait!' the boy exclaimed as they reached the door. He turned back uncertainly. 'We can't leave those pokémon . . ..'

The girl paused, then nodded. The two children ran back towards the cages.

'What the heck are you doing!?' the man yelled. 'Get this thing off me!'

The boy reached a hand out to the snarling, thrashing creature in the cage . . . and suddenly it was still. Shocked, the boy pulled his hand back, staring at the creature almost in fear.

'What the . . .' breathed the man.

The girl climbed onto the bench where the smaller creature was yapping frantically.

'Hey, it's OK,' she smiled. The creature looked at her, and was silent.

But before anyone could stay awed for very long, harsh screams shot out from the corridor, and the children spun around in fear.

'It's here! It's inside! Run for your lives!'

A group of ten or so adult humans sprinted past the open door, screaming at the top of their lungs. The children's breathing increased rapidly, the fear swelling up inside of them, consuming them.

The shrill cries became more frantic, and the children's expressions fell as a huge ball of flames shot past the door and down the corridor.

'Get me out of here!' cried the man, and putting all his energy into it, pushed the cage off his chest and got to his feet. The creature inside snarled, but the boy only had to look at it and it was silent once more.

'Run, you stupid kids!' yelled the man, as he sprinted out the door. 'Run!'

The man disappeared down the corridor, and suddenly everything was silent once more . . . except for one sound. A clicking noise, like metal striking metal . . . click . . . click . . . click. It was getting louder, closer . . . click . . . click . . . click, click, click, click click click click.

The girl drew in a breath and clutched the cage tightly, as if the creature inside gave her reassurance.

The clicking got closer, closer . . . and the room began getting lighter as the sound approached. The creatures in the cages became more visible, but the children were too afraid to look at them.

Suddenly, a large figure stood at the doorway.

It was not human. A huge bird-like creature, standing on short legs tipped with three razor-sharp talons. Its white chest feathers contrasted with the dark red of its back and neck . . . while its enormously spread wings shined with the seven colours of the rainbow.

The children were too afraid to even breathe.

The creature stretched its long neck into the room, its sharp red eyes staring straight at the children, almost into them, as if it was looking not at their bodies, but their souls. It nodded to itself, let out a cry, and opened its pointed golden beak.

'No!' the girl exclaimed, as she saw the fire spark up in the bird's throat. She clutched the cage more tightly. 'No!'

But there was nothing that she or anyone else could do. The bird threw its head forward and shot out a burst of flames, and then the whole building was alight . . ..

  
  


That was where their memories faded. And when they woke up, the creatures in the cages were nowhere to be seen.

  
  


_Yuuyake no shita de yakusoku shiyou _

_Mata ashita issho ni asobou ne . . ._


	2. Chapter 1: Ignition

Note: I'm Australian . . . so when I refer to temperature, I mean Celcius, not Fahrenheit. Thirty degress is a LOT hotter than it sounds. ^_^; Also, a lot of words are spelled differently in Australian English. We like "U"s and don't like "Z"s. =P 

**Chapter One - Ignition**

  
  


'Turn the fans on, turn the fans on, turn the fans on!' I moaned, slumping down further in my sweat-plastered seat.

'Kit!' Amanda laughed from her seat beside me. 'It's twelve degrees! It's your jumper you need to put on, not the fans!'

'As if it is!' I objected, wiping the sweat off my forehead. 'It's gotta be at least thirty! Oh, man!'

With another moan, I leant down and lay my head on the desk, exhausted from the heat. How could no one else be feeling it? It was as if the sun were pounding into my veins; I could feel the blood pulsing, the heat building up inside me. I reached for my water bottle again and held it over my mouth, tipping it upside down. Nothing. Great, it was empty already. I was gonna die of heat soon!

Just as I was about to put up my hand to ask if I could go and get another drink, a sharp ringing sound shot out overhead, and the class began packing up. Ahh, lunch time. Even though I didn't want to go out into the sun at a time like this, I had this kind of urge to get out of the building. There was something daunting about being indoors . . . though maybe that was more to do with the fact that it was a school building than anything.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I stood up, wiping my forehead once again before picking up my backpack and heading outside. Fresh air, that was what I needed.

'Kit, are you sure you're feeling OK?' Amanda rushed up behind me. Her tone was different to before; she sounded genuinely concerned this time. 'You look really flushed, are you sure you're not coming down with something?'

'I'm OK,' I said. I wasn't feeling sick, no, just really overheated. 'I just wanna get some food and some fresh air.'

'All right,' sighed Amanda, shaking her head. 'Let's go outside. Just don't blame _me_ when we both come down with the flu.'

As we stepped outside into the quadrangle, I took in a breath of fresh air. Ahh, this was better, at least for now. Wiping my forehead again, I gambolled over to the silver seats where my friends and I always congregated at lunchtime. Amanda followed with a sigh and a shiver.

'Oh yeah, this is better,' I nodded. 'Still hot, but it's good to be out of that cramped building.'

'I didn't know you were claustrophobic,' said Amanda.

I laughed. 'I'm not. I just feel like getting outside at the moment. Man it's hot!'

'Whatever, Kit,' Amanda just shook her head and took her lunch box out of her backpack.

We'd been sitting there for no less than a minute when a student stepped out from the door at the other side of the quad.

'Finally, someone else who doesn't shut themselves up in the boiling classrooms at lunchtime,' I said, before I'd actually realised who it was. I belatedly noticed the features of the taller, older boy: his pale skin, his ridiculously long and messy (almost shaggy - I wondered how long since he'd brushed it) blonde hair, his thin rectangular glasses, his untucked shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his hands in the pockets of his oversized school trousers, his backpack slung over one shoulder, his posture slightly hunched forward. I rolled my eyes. 'Oh, it's just Taylor.'

Russell Taylor to be exact, but everyone knew him by his surname. Perhaps one of the most annoying guys I'd ever met, he lived out on some farm on the outskirts of Spectrum City, but his grandmother lived in the apartment next to me. He stayed there a lot (though I never really knew why) and that's how I knew him so well (or maybe "unwell" would be the more appropriate term - we weren't exactly the best of friends).

Amanda let out a little laugh, and I shook my head. No matter how many times I tried to tell her what a jerk Taylor was, she never listened. She watched as he casually headed over to a nearby bench and sat down, dumping his backpack on the seat next to him (probably so that nobody would sit there). He took out his lunch and a book, and began reading as he ate.

'I don't see what you've got against him,' said Amanda.

'Ever talked to him?' I asked. 'He's an absolute moron.'

'No he's not,' Amanda grinned and lay back against the wall, almost dreamily. 'And he's _so_ cute . . ..'

I nearly chocked.

'Are you blind!?' I exclaimed, bewildered.

Amanda laughed. 'He _is_! And I feel kind of sorry for him, he's such a lone wolf, he never seems to have any friends.'

'Doesn't that tell you something?' I asked. 'Besides, he lives on a farm. You hate farms. You know: old, dirty, falling apart, bad-smelling, all that other stuff you complain about.'

'I guess,' said Amanda. 'But it _would _be kind of funky to have all those pokémon. I heard he's a really good rapidash rider.'

'Big deal,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Rapidashes are a cinch to ride.'

'But they've got fire in their manes!' Amanda exclaimed. 'You can get really badly hurt if you don't know what you're doing. And they can be really vicious too, with those horns and the diamond-hard hooves.'

I shrugged. Rapidashes had never bothered me. I knew that they could be temperamental, and even attack humans if they didn't treat them right, but I'd always gotten along well with them.

'Anyway, you're not exactly the best person to trust when it comes to pokémon,' said Amanda. 'The fourteen-year-old girl who's scared of little Woopy.'

'I'm not _scared_ of it!' I said, irritated. 'Woopers just get to me. They're annoying.'

Amanda laughed. 'Oh, they're "annoying", are they? Is that why you recoil in fear every time you see him?'

I turned away from her, blushing. Everyone was afraid of something, and plenty of people were afraid of certain species of pokémon. So what if I was afraid of woopers? She didn't have to rub it in. These days I even avoided going to her place, because whenever I went there either she or her little brother let out their pet wooper just to annoy me. The worst part was that no one in her family was a pokémon trainer, so "Woopy" (Amanda never was great with names) had no control over its attacks, and so every now and then it'd just start firing water guns at me for no apparent reason. That was when it _really_ got to me.

'I don't see what's so scary about him,' said Amanda. 'I think he's the cutest pokémon in the world. And what kind of person's afraid of a pokémon anyway?'

'All right,' I said, folding my arms. 'If you're so tough, next time I see a kyorge I'll send it after you.'

'And I'll great it happily,' smiled Amanda. 'Kyorges are beautiful, I love them! It's a shame they don't really exist; I'd love one!'

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'You reckon they don't exist!?'

'Oh come on Kit,' Amanda rolled her eyes. 'You don't really believe in legendary pokémon, do you?'

I stared at her. Didn't everyone believe in legendary pokémon? Just because they were legendary didn't mean they didn't exist . . . did it?

Amanda laughed. 'You're pathetic, Kit. As much as I'd love a kyorge or a ho-oh, I'm not stupid enough to actually believe in them. People just made them up to entice kids to become pokémon trainers. I think it's sad, really, the way some trainers spend their whole lives searching for legendary pokémon. They've gotta get a grip on reality.'

I narrowed my eyes. Legendary pokémon were real, I _knew _it. Who did she think she was to insult them by calling them mere myths? When she did that, she wasn't only insulting the great beasts, she was insulting me. Just because she couldn't see the truth didn't mean that she had to accuse those of us who _could_, of losing our grip on reality.

Perhaps I was taking it too personally, but I couldn't help it . . . I just always got defensive whenever people spoke about legendary pokémon. Maybe it was the fact that she'd mentioned Ho-Oh specifically that had really gotten to me this time. Although I'd never told anyone, I had a clear memory of seeing Ho-Oh as a child. I couldn't quite remember when or where. I could picture the scene clearly, but even though I'd watched it over and over countless times in my memory, the setting always seemed so hauntingly unfamiliar.

A dark forest, dense with vegetation. A sharp cry would ring out, and then the sky would turn black, and I wouldn't be able to see anymore. I'd feel so lost, so afraid, and then I'd look up. And there, the sole entity uncloaked by the darkness . . . the golden bird with the seven-coloured wings. Suddenly I'd feel calm again, at home, at rest . . . the bird would crane its long neck and look down at me, and it would nod, and then a cloud of ash would fall from its wings. I'd watch it fall in slow motion to the forest floor, and I'd reach out to touch it, only I wouldn't see my hands, I'd only feel. I'd touch the ash, and then . . . then . . ..

'Um, Kit! Helloooo in there?'

I blinked, and turned back to Amanda. I'd gotten lost for a moment there. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. My memories of Ho-Oh were frightening, but they were also comforting. It seemed crazy, but I felt almost as if playing them in my mind made me more comfortable about the person I was.

'You totally blanked out for a moment there, Kit!' said Amanda. 'I thought you were about to faint or something.'

'Only from heat exhaustion,' I said, and forced a smile.

Amanda sighed. 'Gosh Kit, I really think you should see a doctor.'

'Whatever,' I said, rolling my eyes. But my heart wasn't in it anymore. There was something in the air. Something didn't feel right.

And at the same time . . . Ho-Oh kept flashing before my eyes. I'd watch it look at me, and then watch the ash fall from its wings, and then feel myself reach out for it . . . and then the memory would jump back, and I'd watch it look at me, and then the ash would fall, and I'd reach out for it . . . and then it would look at me, and the ash would fall, and . . . no! That wasn't where it ended! There was more than that!

I'd reach out for the ash, reach out with all my might . . . but then Ho-Oh would look at me, and the ash would fall.

The cycle repeated, and repeated, and each time I could feel myself trying harder to touch that ash, but each time I'd get close to it, the scene would start again.

'No . . .' I breathed, and got to my feet. I felt dizzy. I could see the schoolyard before me, but it was as if I weren't really there. The memory cycled and cycled, and I felt more in touch with the world of my mind than the world I saw before me.

'Kit . . .' I barely recognised Amanda's distant voice. 'Are you OK?'

I reached out towards the ash, and I felt hotter and hotter the closer I got. I could almost feel my skin burning as my invisible fingertips neared the ash . . . so close, so close . . . but the heat was getting unbearable . . . come on, just a bit closer . . . I don't know how much more I can take . . . nearly there . . . it's burning, it's too hot . . . almost, almost . . . too much, too much . . ..

There!

The hand of my mind slammed down on the ash, my fingers wrapped around it. The ash was still burning, but I didn't care anymore. It was almost as if I _wanted_ to get burned. The heat wasn't destructive, it wasn't painful, it was soothing.

There was a crash of thunder, and the scene in my mind disintegrated as I looked up at the sky above the quadrangle. Black storm clouds were gathering, blocking out the sun and turning the sky dark. And above the deep rolling thunder, a high-pitched, almost machine-like cry was sounding.

It wasn't the cry of Ho-Oh. This wasn't the scene from my memory. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

'Kit, come on, get inside!' Amanda hissed urgently, grabbing my arm. 'It's gonna rain. Don't tell me you want to stand out here in the rain!'

I ignored her. Something was wrong. Those clouds shouldn't have been there. Something was missing, it was out of order, it was wrong. And I was afraid of what that could mean.

'Kit! What's _wrong_ with you!? Come inside now, it's not even funny anymore!'

Amanda pulled my arm, but I yanked it back, out of her grip. Even in my dazed state, I was surprised at my strength. I was the shortest student in my grade and one of the worst when it came to sport. But I didn't have time to worry about that now.

'Fine,' muttered Amanda. 'Stay out here and get pneumonia, see if I care!'

I didn't bother to look at her, but I heard her pick up both our backpacks and take them inside. I glanced over to where Taylor had been sitting . . . the bench was empty. I then spotted a figure out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see Taylor standing at the door, his shoulders slumped, about to drop his book any second now as he stared up at the sky oblivious to his surroundings. I couldn't ever remember seeing Taylor look scared before, but at that moment he looked terrified.

He must have sensed that I was looking at him, as he straightened up slightly and turned to me. We made eye contact for a second, before I looked away, turning back to the sky.

A drop of rain fell.

I watched it drop through the air, almost in slow motion, until it landed on my hand.

It hurt. It stung like mad. It sizzled out and disappeared, but with excruciating pain. This was no normal rain.

That drop was just the beginning. I slowly turned back up to the sky in horror, and watched as the downpour started.

Each raindrop felt like a pin on fire, a sharp prick on my skin followed by a scarring burn . . . only instead of being hot, it felt colder than ice. The onslaught of raindrops drilled into my head, my arms, my back, until I couldn't distinguish each drop any longer and it was just one constant agony. Like being engulfed by fire.

I screamed from the bottom of my lungs and broke into a run. But I wasn't headed for the safety of the building. I didn't know where I was headed. I just let my legs carry me with newfound speed, to wherever they would take me. I thought I heard someone call out my name, but I couldn't tell anymore. All I could do was run.

So that was what I did. I ran down the path, I ran out of the school gates, I ran down the street, I ran past the cars and the people and the occasional pokémon, I ran past the shops, I ran past the buildings, I ran through the outskirts of Spectrum City, I ran down route seventy-two, I ran into the Genesis Bushland, I ran past the cyndaquil that rolled itself into a ball in shock, I ran past the growlithe that ducked into the bushes in fear.

I ran into a huge clearing, and that was where I stopped.

I took a moment to steady my breathing, then looked up at the sky. The rain had stopped, and the sky was calm. I breathed a sigh of relief. I still felt the pain from the downpour of rain, but the heat inside of me had gone. I was cold now. A shiver rushed through my body, and I crossed my arms tightly in an attempt to keep warm.

Just when I was beginning to get my peace of mind back, that strange high-pitched cry screeched out above me, and I had to cover my ears to try and block it out. I turned my attention to the sky, and my expression dropped.

Two huge winged beasts were hovering directly above me. The larger one, a sleek, white, winged sea monster, was pulling its long neck back, its jaws wide open as if charging up an attack. And the smaller one . . . I fell to my knees in awe. There it was . . . the golden bird with the seven-coloured wings . . . right above me.

But something wasn't right. It wasn't graceful, it wasn't majestic, it wasn't regal . . . it was beaten-up, it was tattered, it was flapping its wings lopsidedly as if it couldn't stay in flight for much longer. No . . . I shook my head in horror. This couldn't happen . . ..

The white sea monster threw its head forward and launched its attack; a huge beam of golden energy that hit its adversary with tremendous force. The bird screeched in pain as it beat its rainbow wings with all its might in an attempt to throw the attack back . . . but it wouldn't be powerful enough, it wouldn't be.

'No!' I screamed, leaping to my feet. 'Ho-Oh!'

The legendary pokémon managed to shoot a look down at me for a split second. But the look wasn't the same one as the one in my memory of Ho-Oh. It was pained, desperate, moribund. I shook my head, feeling the tears well up in my eyes and unable to stop them from falling down my face.

'Ho-Oh . . .' I breathed.

The phoenix let out one last screech, before the flames spilled out from its beak, falling onto its feathers. They sparked to life and flared up, consuming the bird's body. Where the mighty Ho-Oh once hovered, a huge ball of flames now floated, one giant flying inferno.

And then the flames died down, and all that was left was a ball of ash. My eyes were fixed to it as it floated down towards the forest floor and settled on the ground before me.

Ho-Oh was gone.

I collapsed to my hands and knees, heaving with sobs. Ho-Oh . . . Ho-Oh . . . what happened to you? Why did you leave me? Why? I'm nobody without you . . . I'm just a nobody with no purpose in life. Even though I never really knew you, you were the only one that made me feel right about who I was. I can't go on without you . . ..

I reached out and clutched the ashes in my hands. Ho-Oh . . . why did you leave?

I slowly became aware of the ashes in my hands solidifying, forming a shape. I took a deep breath to steady myself, and forced myself to open my eyes. And there in my hands was a small clear rock, with a tiny red flame burning inside of it.

I blinked back my tears and stared. A fire stone. But . . . how? And why? Was this how fire stones were created; from the ashes of the legendary fire bird? I swallowed. What were the chances of my witnessing a thing like that . . . the battle between the two great flying beasts . . . the creation of the fire stone from the ashes of Ho-Oh . . . ? It had been my memory of Ho-Oh that had brought my here, and that couldn't be a coincidence.

The fire stone began to grow warmer, and I grasped it in my cold hands, feeling the warm energy flow through my body. The fire at the centre of the rock glowed an unusually bright red as the inferno of power sparked to life. Why was it reacting so strongly? I had seen pokémon trainers hold a fire stone before, and the rock never sprung to life like this, not until it was used on an eevee, vulpix or growlithe . . . or at least placed near one.

I could feel the fire flowing down my fingers, my body temperature steadily rising as the burning sensation ran through my veins. The fire, the fire . . . I felt it enkindle something in my heart, and the blaze rose up, overcoming me. The burning consumed my mind, my conscious thought lapsed into a whirring conflagration, all I could see were the flickering flames, fighting for my life. I lost awareness of the stone's physical presence, as it if had disintegrated, burnt to ash in the incinerating inferno.

My hands felt different, I could feel them changing. My fingers curled over and seemed to disappear, the backs of my hands became naturally warmer. I felt my arms and legs pull towards me as if shrinking, as I fell over from lack of energy. I didn't have the strength to cry out as my face was torn out of shape, my nose thrust forward, my ears pulled up and back. I became aware of a set of extra weights at the back of my legs, and collapsed under the horror of the experience.

Just as I fell unconscious, the fire died down.


	3. Chapter 2: Cam

Chapter Two - Cam

  
  


'Hey, are you OK? C'mon, wake up!'

A slurred, high-pitched voice entered my barely conscious mind. I shut my eyes tightly, trying to concentrate. I had _thought_ that I'd heard those words . . . but at the same time, it had sounded as if the speech had been made up of just one phrase. Something like, "cleon"?

'It's OK, I'm here to help you, see if you can get up.'

There it was again. I _knew_ I had heard a sentence consisting solely of the word "cleon"! But . . . why had it sounded so much like those English words? Were they just what I wanted to hear? I knew that I was severely injured. I couldn't remember entirely what had happened to me . . . when I tried to think about it, all that I saw was a horrible burning inferno surrounding me. I was afraid.

I forced myself to open my eyes. It was too much effort to lift my head up; all I could do was roll my eyes up as far as they could go.

The figure before me was not human. It was a stout creature, covered in soft green scales, with a zig-zagged purple band across its belly. It stood on two short hind legs with three sharp yellow claws protruding at the base. Its two long, slender arms were each similarly armed with three claws. Its oversized head, approximately the size of the entire rest of its body, was crowned with an aureate frill jutting out from either size. This cartilaginous structure continued in a thin line down its face, looping around its small, dark beady eyes and finally forming its massive lips.

I gulped as the creature turned its head on its side and curved its huge mouth into a smile. That was one enormous kecleon!

'Oh, so you're alive!'

I watched in frightful amazement as the creature spoke. I knew that its mouth was only moving to the sound of the word "cleon", and yet . . . I could hear it, understand it. I had always thought I'd been able to understand pokémon, but not like this. I had only ever been able to get a general message, not actual words.

'It's OK,' smiled the kecleon. 'You're hurt, but I know a place around here where you can heal right up. C'mon.'

As the pokémon reached its right paw out to help me, I backed away, afraid. In doing so, I noticed belatedly that something was wrong with my arms and legs. They felt too short, and somewhat misplaced . . . I realised I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. Unsure if I wanted to see what had happened to me, I forced myself to look down at my hands.

They weren't there.

My mouth fell open in horror as my eyes fell on canine-like paws, covered in short umber fur, with a tiny white claw on each of the four small toes.

I lifted my right arm - or what should have been my right arm - into the air, my blood going cold as I watched the chestnut-coloured foreleg rise. I held the paw in front of my face, eyes transfixed on the soft pad underneath. What had happened to me?

As I tried to swallow the fear, I realised that my mouth had changed, too. It was longer, narrower, and as I ran my thin tongue over my teeth I felt that they were sharper.

'Are you OK?' the kecleon tilted its head, looking at me with intrigue. 'You look scared.'

I opened my mouth to speak. 'I-'

I cut myself off abruptly as I heard my voice. It sounded so . . . foreign. It was high-pitched, slightly wailing in its tone, and . . . had I really spoken in English? It hadn't sounded like it. I knew that I'd heard the words in my mind, but what had really come out?

'You what?' the kecleon asked.

So it understood me . . ..

I coughed, trying to clear my throat, my mind. 'What happened to me?'

My unfamiliar voice was still scaring me, but I forced myself not to think about it.

'I don't know,' said the kecleon, giving me a sympathetic look. 'I found you here passed out on the ground, but you're covered in burns. Did you get into a fight with another fire pokémon?'

I didn't recall seeing any- what did he mean, "another" fire pokémon!?

'What am I?' I said suddenly.

The kecleon blinked, then gave me a worried look. 'You're not feeling well. Come with me, Eustacia will heal you.'

I didn't object as the kecleon walked towards me and put an arm around my back, helping me to my feet. I instinctively attempted to stand up on my legs, but only fell to the ground again, not finding enough support on those short legs and tiny feet to hold up my whole body. I had to force myself to stand on all fours, startling myself as I realised that my arms - if they _were_ arms - were the same length as my legs. It was difficult to walk at first, but eventually I got into the pattern of putting my right arm forward at the same time as my left leg, and vice versa. With the kecleon there supporting me, I soon began to make some progress, but it still worried me that this kecleon, normally a rather small pokémon, stood taller than me . . . as I walked on I noticed that my surroundings, too, seemed larger than life. Whereas I would normally brush through grass with my ankles, it now surrounded my legs.

'I'm Cam,' said the kecleon brightly. 'Who're you?'

What a question.

'Kit,' I managed to croak out. 'But I'm not sure that's who I am right now . . ..'

Cam sighed. 'I'll get you healed in no time, don't you worry.'

'Where're you taking me?' I asked

'To Eustacia, of course,' replied Cam, as if it were obvious.

'Who's that?' I asked.

Cam stopped dead in his tracks, and looked down at me. 'You don't know who Eustacia is? You're not from around here, are you?'

I sighed. 'Not exactly.'

'Then how'd you get here?' Cam asked, as we began walking again. 'Where're you from?'

Though I wasn't sure I should be giving out my details to a total stranger, he was only a pokémon, so it wasn't a big deal.

'Spectrum City,' I told him.

'The city!?' Cam exclaimed. 'You're a street pokémon?'

This time I was the one to stop. I felt my heart start to race as I faced Cam in fear.

'Wh . . . what?' I asked slowly.

'Oh,' said Cam. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. Are you a pet, then? Or a trainer's pokémon?'

I felt sick.

'I . . . I . . .' I had no idea what to say. 'No! I'm not!'

Cam gave me a worried look. 'I think I'd better get you healed up as soon as I can.'

  
  


'Yo, Cam! What's up, man?'

'Hi Dale,' said Cam, and I looked up to see who he was talking to. I blinked. He'd brought me to what looked like the base of a mountain . . . peering up the sheer edges, I saw only rocks and boulders for as far as I could see. Surely Cam didn't expect me to climb up there in this state!?

'Sorry, but I can't stay and talk,' said Cam. He gestured to me. 'I've got to take her to Eustacia. She's really badly hurt.'

I looked back to where the other voice had come from, and squinted. I didn't see anyone, only a wall of stones. I glanced around uneasily. Where was that voice coming from?

'Oh, the poor thing . . .' a new voice, softer than the first but with that same gravelly tone. I looked around frantically, but still there was no sign of the speaker. 'C'mon, Dale!'

I spotted movement in the corner of my eye, and shot my head down to the right. I put my head forward, peering in closely. Was I hallucinating, or was that rock moving? I drew in a breath as I saw two large, dark eyes open on the rock's surface, and its crevices curve into a smile. I took a step back, afraid.

'That's my job!' the rock spoke, and I felt dizzy. It then turned, and the rocks around it gave way as it drew its two solid arms out of the dirt behind it.

I blinked. That was no rock! It was a geodude! I shook my head, cursing myself for being so alarmed. It was only a pokémon, and by the looks of things, a friendly one.

Sensing more movement, I turned to my left, where another geodude was pulling herself out from the surrounding rocks. She gave me a warm smile.

'Don't worry,' she said reassuringly. 'You'll be better in no time. Eustacia's the best healer in all of Aruto!' She turned to the other geodude, narrowing her eyes. 'Hurry up, Dale! Get those lazy arms moving!'

'Chill out, sister!' the geodude rolled his eyes as he began pushing at the boulder beside him, while the geodude to my left grabbed onto the boulder with her big stoney hands and pulled. I watched in awe as they moved the boulder out of the way to reveal a dark cave behind it.

'Thanks guys,' said Cam. He looked down at me, giving me a pat on the back. I looked up at him, and he gestured to the newly-opened cave. 'Come on.'

I gulped. I wasn't sure I wanted to be heading off into some unknown cave hidden behind a boulder . . . but if I couldn't trust Cam right now, I couldn't trust anyone. And those geodudes seemed nice enough. Whoever this Eustacia person was, maybe she really could help me. Whatever was going on, I had to find _somebody_ who could give me answers.

I nodded, and Cam led me into the cave. As I stepped inside, I barely had a chance to adjust my eyes to the empty darkness, my body to the damp hollowness, before something creaked behind me and I turned to see the boulder closing over the entrance to the cave. A moment later it had covered the entrance completely, and we were plunged into pitch blackness. I gulped, glancing around at the unfamiliar shapes. I hoped Cam knew where he was going. I looked up at him, and saw him raise his right paw to the side of his mouth as if to project his voice like a megaphone.

'Tama!' he called.

'Cam?' a high-pitched voice trilled. I turned to see a figure appear from behind the dark shape of a rock. I couldn't quite make out what it was . . . like Cam, it walked on two short legs, but it was a little taller than him, and a long tail with a small ball on the end trailed behind it. 'It _is _you! Hello Cam!'

The figure bounded towards us, and as it drew closer I was able to make out more of its features. Its striped, cone-shaped ears protruded from either side of the fluffy hair on its head, and its chest was similarly covered in fluffy wool. Its snout was rounded, and its eyes small and dark. A flaaffy! But . . . they didn't normally live in caves, did they?

'Hi Tama,' said Cam. He gestured to me. 'I'm taking this one to Eustacia, think you can lead the way?'

'Of course!' smiled the flaaffy, who I assumed was called Tama. 'Just follow me!'

She spun around, gesturing for us to follow her. Just as I started to wonder how we were going to follow her in a cave as dark as this, the ball on the end of her tail sparked and began to glow, radiating light around the flaaffy and illuminating the cave. I took a moment to adjust to the bright light, then looked around me. We certainly weren't alone; zubats almost completely covered the ceiling of the cave, yamiramis clung to the walls and columns, sandshrews scurried across the floor. It was a little daunting, as if they were all watching as us we made our way through the cave.

'Tama is Eustacia's official guide,' Cam said conversationally. 'Most flaaffies live out in open pastures, but she loves the caves, so she was perfect for the job.'

'Most of my friends live here,' added Tama, waving to a paras as we passed it. He nodded back to her, and she smiled. 'Most of my family live on farms, but that kind of life is so boring. And imagine being a slave to a human!' She shuddered. 'I don't know how they cope. Humans just use us for our wool, they don't care about us at all.'

I wanted to tell her that that wasn't true, that humans kept pokémon because they were companions, friends. But I didn't have the strength to speak and besides, I didn't want to argue with the one who was helping me. I still had no idea what was going on, but whatever had happened to me, I felt as if pokémon were the only ones I could trust right now.

'Those geodudes we met earlier, Dale and Dena,' said Cam, as if trying to change the topic. 'They're the official guardians of Extant Cave. Most people don't even notice they're there. And they've kept humans away for as long as Eustacia's garden has existed.'

'Which is thousands of years,' added Tama.

'Well,' Cam lowered his voice, as if not wanting Tama to hear. 'That's what they say, but not too many people really believe that.' He raised his voice again. 'Up here you'll meet Porter. He's the official transporter across the Extant River to the garden.'

I nodded, but my heart wasn't in it. So this place they were taking me to - whatever it was - had never been seen by humans before. The only thing that would make them decide to take me there would be if they thought that I _wasn't_ human. I gulped. I wasn't even curious about what it was that I'd become. All I wanted was to change back . . . to wake up from this nightmare and find myself back to normal . . . before the rain had come, before I'd seen Ho-Oh and Lugia fighting, before I'd touched that fire stone.

I was afraid. Each time I thought back to what had happened, it only made it worse. I'd watch Ho-Oh burn up and fall to the ground in ashes, and tears would form in my eyes. Was it really gone? Had Ho-Oh really left this world for good? And . . . was it all my fault? I couldn't help but feel that it was. So perhaps . . . this was my punishment for destroying the great beast. I'd be trapped inside the body of some monster for the rest of my life, as if the guilt weren't punishment enough.

We trudged onwards through the cave, Cam and Tama occasionally exchanging conversation, but I was too weak and too upset to join in. I felt so out of place, so foreign to the world of pokémon. Cam had offered me his help because he was so kind-hearted, but what right did I have to accept that aid? Whatever I was now, I was still a human at heart, and I had still caused Ho-Oh to disappear . . . what would these pokémon say if they found out what I'd done to their legendary beast?

'Here we are!' Cam's cheerful voice broke into my thoughts. I looked up weakly. Before us was an underground river, water dripping from the stalactites and creating ripples in the otherwise still, perfectly clear liquid. And resting calmly at the water's edge was a pokémon. A large, aqua-blue creature with a long serpent-like neck, a hard dark spiny shell on its back, and four large flippers underneath.

The lapras opened his large friendly eyes and lowered its head, giving us a wide smile.

'Hello,' he spoke in a warm, friendly voice. He gestured to the shell on his back. 'Climb onto my back, I'll take you to Eustacia.'

'Thank you, Porter,' said Cam. He looked down at me. 'Come on Kit.'

I hesitated. Porter seemed friendly enough, but Cam hadn't mentioned that he'd be a lapras . . . or that he'd be carrying us across water. I swallowed. I'd never felt quite comfortable around water. When we'd done swimming in sport at school I'd always tried to find ways to get out of it. I'd never really known what had made me feel so nervous about water, but at that moment, the feeling was stronger than ever.

'You're nervous, and that's all right, I understand,' smiled Porter. 'But I promise you, I won't let you fall off. You're safe with me.'

'He's right,' said Cam. 'Porter's the most reliable lapras in the world. And anyway, this is the only way to get to Eustacia, so come on.'

I gulped, and forced myself to step forward. As I edged closer to the water, I felt my trepidation build up inside me, growing with each step. It swelled through my body and numbed my mind, until I couldn't hear anything except the constant dripping of the moisture from the stalactites into the large, clear pool. Drip, drip . . . and the ripples would distort the crystalline calmness of the reservoir.

My head felt heavy, and my body stiff. I couldn't move, couldn't push myself closer to the water. I felt cold. The warmth of the fire inside me was dimming, and the water seemed determined to put it out completely. But no! I couldn't let that happen! I took a step back in fear.

'Kit . . .' Cam said uncertainly. 'What's the matter?'

'I . . . I . . .' I didn't even know.

'She must still be in shock from whatever happened to her,' said Tama worriedly.

'Come on, Kit,' encouraged Cam. 'Just a few more steps.'

He tightened his arm around my back and took a few steps forward, almost pulling me with him as my stiff feet dragged along behind him. I stared at the pool ahead of me and shook my head in horror. I couldn't, I couldn't . . . no further Cam, please!

But it was too late. I stood at the water's edge, the smooth blue skin of the lapras only centimetres in front of me. I could feel the water's aura flowing up and seeping into me, dousing my flames with precipitation. And then my own reserves of water swelled up, the tears forming in my eyes, rolling down my cheeks and dropping . . . and that sound . . . drip, drip . . . as my tears fell into the larger pool. I followed their path with my eyes, turning my head down to the water. I watched the ripples form, concentric circles around the centre of my tears, my pain, my horror.

Then the ripples cleared, and I saw my face.

I wanted to cry out, but I couldn't remember how. This was not the face I knew. I peered closer, and watched the reflection grow larger as we reached out to one another. I watched the tears fall from its eyes and meet my own, and mine met its . . . we were one.

It was the face of an animal. Coated in short chestnut fur, a rounded face with a short snout. Two large ears protruding from the top of the head, with curls of long tawny hair in between. I could only look at the face for a moment longer, before its almond-shaped green eyes rolled up inside its head, and I passed out again.


	4. Chapter 3: Recognition

Chapter Three - Recognition

  
  


When I awoke, I found myself lying on a cold, hard, rough surface. I shifted uncomfortably, but only made it worse as I felt a sharp rock wedge into my back.

'Ouch!' I exclaimed, and sat up abruptly, reaching an arm behind me to rub my back.

I paused. An arm?

I hurriedly pulled my arm back in front of me and looked down at my hands. My hands!

'Don't be alarmed, child . . .' a soft voice said, reassuringly but uncertainly.

Alarmed? No way! I was ecstatic! I broke into a huge grin as I ran my eyes up my arms, down the front of my body, down my legs. I reached my hands up and felt my head, my face. No fur, no snout, no freaky ears, no tails! I was . . . I was myself!

'I don't know how to explain it . . .' the voice continued. 'But please, please just stay calm. There must be some explanation.'

'Calm!?' I exclaimed with a laugh, and looked up at the voice's owner. Then my expression fell. The thing that stood before me with a worried expression on its face was no human. It was a large, pink, egg-shaped creature with tiny arms and feet, equally tiny dark eyes, and a pouch containing a pure white egg. I scratched my head. 'OK. You're a talking chansey.'

The chansey blinked. 'Excuse me?'

'Look,' I said, getting to my feet. 'I don't know if I've been dreaming or not, but I'm sure I'm awake right now. And the last time I checked, pokémon didn't talk. So what's the deal with you?'

'You . . . you're ill, child,' the chansey said worriedly, and hurried towards me. 'Please, lie down.'

She reached out a hand and touched my arm, but I pushed her away. I looked down at her, putting my hands on my hips.

'What's goin' on?' I asked. 'Where am I?'

'You . . . you aren't alarmed at your . . . your body?' the chansey asked.

I gave her a confused look. 'Should I be?'

'No, no of course not!' the chansey shook her head. 'But child, you . . . you've . . . you've become human.'

I laughed. 'Listen, I was human to begin with. Now why don't you explain what's going on?'

'You were . . . human . . . to begin with?' the chansey asked slowly.

'That's what I said,' I nodded. 'So am I gonna get some answers or not?'

'Then the legend can't be true . . .' the chansey looked away, her eyes narrow as if deep in thought.

'Whatever,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Just tell me. What am I doing here?'

The chansey sighed and took a deep breath as she turned to me. 'You were brought here to be healed. You were injured. Cam found you in the bush-'

'Cam!' I exclaimed, cutting her off. That name . . . yes, I remembered now. The kecleon. He'd found me and promised to help me, to bring me to . . . I looked at the chansey. 'Then I suppose you're Eustacia?'

The chansey nodded. 'That is what they call me.'

'A simple "yes" would've done, but OK,' I said, shaking my head. Eustacia blinked, as if shocked at my attitude. 'Right. So when Cam brought me here . . . what exactly was wrong with me?'

'None of us knew,' said Eustacia. 'He found you passed out in the bush. You were badly burned, a condition which doesn't normally affect fire pokémon-'

'Fire pokémon?' I asked, looking at her curiously. I knew that I'd been in the body of something else, that for a while I hadn't been human . . . but was she saying that I'd actually . . . become a pokémon? I wracked my memories. There had been a cave, and . . . that's right, an underground river . . . and I'd looked into the river and seen my reflection . . ..

I looked at Eustacia. 'I was a vulpix.'

The chansey nodded slowly. 'That is correct.'

I took a deep breath. This was surreal. Maybe I was dreaming . . . surely I _had_ to be dreaming. But dreams didn't last this long, they weren't this detailed. But then . . . what if everything that had happened before hadn't actually been part of the dream, but I'd only just created it then, as memories that to my dream self were real, but were really no more than a hallucinatory fabrication?

People didn't turn into pokémon. That was just fact. Pokémon could evolve, some pokémon could transform, but humans couldn't do either. That was what made us so different. Sure, there were stories. Books, comics, movies . . . about super heroes, humans who took on the powers of pokémon. Try as I might to deny it, I had to admit that I'd been a fan of the _Gligarman _series as a kid. And there were so many others that I _hadn't_ gotten into as much . . . _Spinarak-Man_ comics, _Pokémorphs _books . . .. But that kind of stuff was all fantasy, all fiction. Everyone _knew_ that it couldn't happen - that was what made it so popular. So how could it have happened to me?

'And you say you were human beforehand?' Eustacia asked, breaking my thoughts.

I looked at her, and nodded. 'Of course. That's why I was so freaked out . . . that's why I passed out when I saw my reflection.'

Eustacia nodded. 'I see. My, this is so very strange . . ..'

'You're telling me,' I muttered. 'Anyway, you still haven't told me why you can speak.'

Eustacia paused, staring at me. 'You can understand me.'

'Well duh,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'You're speaking English.'

Eustacia shook her head slowly. 'No I'm not, child.'

I blinked, and was about to argue with her for saying something so absurd, when something stopped me. I thought for a moment. Even though I'd understood her every word perfectly, it almost _had_ sounded like she'd been speaking another language. I thought back to when I'd heard Cam and the others speak. Cam's words had been in English to my mind, but to my ears, they'd been nothing but "cleon".

'Say something again,' I said, waiting to test out my hypothesis. I concentrated all my attention on my ears.

'Chansey chansey chansey,' said Eustacia, and I gasped.

'You . . . you're _not_ speaking in English!' I exclaimed. Eustacia shook her head. I swallowed. 'Then how come I can understand you? I mean, I _suppose_ it makes sense that I could understand Cam before when I was . . . not myself . . . but how come I can understand you now? I'm . . . I'm a human. You're a pokémon!'

Eustacia paused, in thought. 'When a pokémon spends enough time with humans, it is common for it to learn to understand their language. But never before have I heard of a human learning to understand pokémon.'

'Me either,' I said, shaking my head. I bit my lip, searching my mind for an explanation. 'Actually . . .' Eustacia looked at me curiously. 'Well, I've sort of always felt like I could understand pokémon. Just never the actual words, you know. I just kind of got the general gist of what they were saying. Of course, no one ever believed me.'

'I see,' nodded Eustacia. 'Then perhaps your experience in the body of a pokémon awakened this latent ability of yours.'

'Maybe . . .' I said uncertainly. 'But that still doesn't explain how I turned into a pokémon in the first place.'

'No,' Eustacia shook her head. She paused, then looked up at me. 'I suggest you keep this ability secret. There are many humans who wish to communicate with pokémon. If it is discovered that you have this ability . . . you could be in danger.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'How would that put me in danger? Wouldn't it, like, make me a celebrity?'

'Fame always puts one in danger,' said Eustacia. 'To the senses of this weary old chansey, you seem like a kind human . . . a rare breed in any case. But there are those who would abuse an ability such as yours. Have you heard of Team Magmar?'

'I've heard of 'em,' I said uncertainly. 'Why?'

Eustacia sighed. 'We have long had to fight the wrongdoings of that evil organisation. It is concerned with nothing but abusing the power of pokémon. You _must_ avoid it at all costs.'

'Yeah, well, I'm not exactly ready to get involved with some international crime organisation anyway,' I said. 'You don't need to _tell_ me to steer clear of Team Magmar, I _know_ they're trouble.'

Eustacia sighed again, and nodded. 'You are a good child. But I'm afraid I must ask you to leave. This garden is a secret haven for wounded pokémon. You are neither wounded nor pokémon.'

'Gee,' I said. 'You're just gonna throw me out?'

Eustacia shook her head. 'You will be guided out. I'm afraid we will have to blindfold you. Humans are not permitted to know the location of our garden. Please understand, it is the way of our people.'

I laughed. 'I'm not gonna go blabbing about where this place is. Sure you didn't give me any solid answers, but you still healed me, right?'

Eustacia nodded. 'I'm sorry, but that is our law. I must ask you to leave now.'

Before I could try to object again, I noticed a tall shadow appear on the floor in front of me. I turned around to see a figure at the entrance to the cave we were in. Although at a first glance it may have been mistaken for a human, on further inspection it was clearly a pokémon. Its muscular human-shaped body was a dark grey colour, with red lines down its arms and three short crests on its head. A machoke.

'Hugo will lead you out,' said Eustacia, as the machoke walked towards me. Knowing it was hopeless to object, I let him tie a mask of bark over my eyes. Although I could still make out some things in my peripheral vision, the bark effectively blocked out any chance I had of seeing where I was going.

'So this is it, you're just throwing me out?' I muttered, shaking my head.

'It is what has to be done,' said Eustacia quietly, and I sighed. I felt Hugo's cold hand take my arm, and he led me out of the cave.

Even at the time, I found it strange that I'd managed to adjust so quickly to what had happened to me. I'd just recovered after somehow transforming into a vulpix, and I wasn't even all that shocked. But I think the reason was that I still hadn't quite come to the realisation that it had actually happened. With something that extreme, that bizarre, that unexpected, it was almost impossible to actually believe it. As Hugo led me away, the memories of the short time I'd spent as a vulpix seemed so vague, so distant, as if they were more a dream than a reality. Even the steps that I took in my human body didn't seem quite real anymore, as all around me I heard the voices of pokémon, and every word made sense.

'A human!' one voice exclaimed.

'How did that get here!?' another shrieked.

'It's all right, children,' Eustacia's calm voice tried to soothe the troubled pokémon. 'This human is not an enemy.'

'But how did it get here? I never saw a human come in!'

'Do not worry,' insisted Eustacia. 'All is well.'

'Where's Kit?'

My heart skipped a beat. That was my name! But how could any of the pokémon here know my name?

'Is she OK?' the voice asked worriedly, and I belatedly realised that I recognised it. It was Cam!

'She . . . has recovered,' Eustacia told him. 'She has already gone.'

'What?' Cam asked slowly. He sighed. 'I see.'

I instinctively turned around to where his voice was coming from, but it was useless - I couldn't see him from behind my mask. Hugo jerked me back around, and I sighed. The disappointment in Cam's voice had been obvious. He had been kind-hearted enough to lead me here when I was injured . . . and as far as he knew, I'd left without even thanking him. More than anything at that moment, I wanted to tell him how grateful I was . . . but he didn't even know who I was anymore. I'd only make things worse if I spoke to him now.

'She . . . said to give her your thanks,' said Eustacia. I sighed, shaking my head. That just wasn't the same.

'I see,' said Cam quietly.

I bit my lip. I couldn't handle this any longer. There was no way I was going to let some chansey and her stupid rules stop me from thanking someone who deserved it! If I just left now, Cam would think that I was some inconsiderate little vulpix who'd just used him to get herself healed . . . and besides, Cam had a right to know who I really was. What was the point in pretending that I was someone else?

In one swift movement, I spun back around, pulling myself out of Hugo's hold and ripping the mask off my face. I blinked for a moment, adjusting to the bright light that was shining down on the garden. Then I shook my head and turned to where Cam was.

'Cam, it's me!' I called. As soon as I spoke, hundreds of young pokémon shrieked and ran in terror. I took a step back, shocked at their reaction. But I didn't have time to worry about them. 'It's me, Kit! I really wanna thank you for what you did for me today!'

Cam stared at me, his little black eyes growing wide with fear. He took a few steps back, shaking his head.

'It's talking to me!' he exclaimed. 'I swear it's talking to me!'

I blinked. What had gotten into him? Of course I was talking to him!

Cam turned to Eustacia frantically. 'What'd it say, Eustacia?'

'What?' I breathed. What did he mean by that? Hadn't he understood what I said?

'Do not worry, Cam,' Eustacia shook her head, and put a hand on Cam's shoulder. The kecleon looked up at her, afraid. 'She is not an enemy. She means no harm.' She looked around at the frantic pokémon scurrying around the garden. 'Children, please! Settle down! There is nothing to fear!' She sighed, and looked at me. 'Please go. The pokémon here do not trust humans. Please do not blame them . . . we have had encounters with cruel humans in the past. Nothing you say will change their minds . . . they do not understand human speech. So please, leave now.'

I stared at her, and felt tears forming in my eyes. Even though I could understand them, the pokémon couldn't understand a word I said . . . not even Cam. I was powerless to tell him how grateful I was. The fearful look on the kecleon's face was painful. After being so excited about returning to my human body, I now felt as if I were missing something . . . even though being a vulpix had been terrifying, Cam had been a true friend, and now . . . I couldn't even thank him for helping me. How could I, when he didn't even know who I was anymore?

I sighed heavily and turned my back on Cam, pulling the bark over my eyes and tying it behind my head.

'Take me out of here,' I said half-heartedly, and Hugo took my arm once again.

  
  


'Kit!' Amanda shrieked as she opened the front door to her apartment. 'Where have you _been_!? You run off like a maniac, don't come back to school, don't answer your phone when I call you! Do you know how worried I was!? You've got a lot of explaining to do!'

'Gosh Amanda, you sound like my mother,' I said, and Amanda narrowed her eyes. I smiled. 'So, uh, have you got my school bag? I figured I'd better grab it before I go home.'

'Oh no you don't!' said Amanda. 'First you tell me where you went!'

I laughed, and scratched my forehead. Perhaps I should have thought about what I was going to say to her. 'Well, it's kind of a long story.'

'I don't care,' said Amanda, putting her hands on her hips. 'Tell me.'

I rolled my eyes. 'It's no big deal, I just went into the bush.'

'Oh, of _course_,' said Amanda sarcastically. 'Where _else_ do you run off to when it's pouring rain? Out into the wilderness, that's the obvious option.'

She shook her head, and I grinned. 'Well, there you go then.'

Amanda sighed and turned around, walking back into her apartment. I followed her in, closing the door behind me. I spotted my backpack sitting on her lounge, and went over and grabbed it, pulling the straps over my shoulders.

'Thanks,' I said.

'Yeah,' said Amanda, trying her best to sound irritated at me, but she had a smirk on her face. I smiled back.

'See you tomorrow!' I said, and hurried back outside. It was nearly six o'clock . . . my parents would be absolutely freaked by now! Luckily I only lived a few blocks away from Amanda.

As I ran down the corridor towards the elevator, I couldn't help noticing an unusual lump in my backpack, digging into my back. Annoyed, I stopped to see what it was. But before I could even pull my backpack off my shoulders, I felt the lump wriggle, and I went cold. Something was _moving_ in my backpack!

As quick as I could, I threw it to the ground and took a few steps back. After taking a deep breath, I shook my head, annoyed at myself for overreacting. Crazier things had happened to me that day - some _thing_ being in my backpack wasn't that big a deal compared to what had happened earlier! Almost laughing at my reaction, I bent over and unzipped my backpack.

'SURPRISE!'

Before I knew what was happening, a hard burst of water shot out of my backpack and slammed into my face. I screamed and jumped back, trying to cover my face in my hands, but it was too late - I was already drenched. When the torrent stopped, I moved my hands away to see a little blue slimy creature sitting in my backpack with a huge grin on its face.

It was that stupid little wooper!

Infuriated, I bent down and grabbed the annoying thing in my hands . . . but did so rather unsuccessfully. As soon as I grabbed him, his slimy little body slid right out of my hands and he jumped up onto my head. At the same time, the soles of my grip-less school shoes slid on the drenched tiles, and I fell flat on my face.

'Fun, fun!' squealed Woopy excitedly, jumping up and down on my head.

'Oh yeah, _heaps_ of fun!' I said angrily, and forced myself to ignore the pain as I pulled myself to my feet. I swiped my hands above my head, but each time I went close to hitting the wooper, he jumped out of the way. 'Get _off_ me you annoying little monster!'

'Fun, fun!' giggled Woopy.

Angrily, I threw my head from side to side in an attempt to knock the thing off. In doing so, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Amanda and her little brother were standing outside the door to their apartment, both laughing hysterically. So they thought this was _funny_, did they? They'd see what was funny when I knocked their stupid wooper out!

With one last violent thrust of my head to the side, Woopy lost his balance and was thrown through the air, slamming into the wall. Without even realising what I was doing, I leapt at him and pinned him to the ground. I grinned down at him, and almost felt like a wild animal pouncing on its prey.

Woopy's lip quavered as he stared up at me, and then he burst out crying, kicking his little feet up and down in a tantrum.

'You're so cruel, Kit!' said Amanda, rushing over and bending down to her pet, scooping him into her arms. As I stood up, Amanda started bouncing the wooper up and down as if it were a little baby.

'_I'm_ cruel!?' I exclaimed. 'Hello! Your stupid wooper's not the one whose school uniform is now _drenched _and probably won't be dry by tomorrow because of this crazy weather! Why don't you try and train that thing!?'

'Why don't you try and train yourself?' Amanda asked rhetorically. 'He was just trying to have some fun, and you practically attacked him as if _you_ were a pokémon! You've gotta learn to control yourself!'

I looked away from her. As if I were a pokémon? Yeah . . . that almost _was_ how I'd acted.

'I've gotta go,' I muttered, picking up my backpack and pulling it over my shoulder. I trudged down the hallway towards the elevator.

'C'mon Kit, it was just a joke!' called Amanda, but I ignored her. I wasn't sure if anything could be a joke anymore. I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

  
  


'Stop right there, young lady!'

I cringed as my father spotted me creeping into my bedroom. I put on my best let's-pretend-to-be-innocent smile and slowly turned to face him.

'Where do you think you've been, Katherine Tanguy?' he demanded, folding his arms.

I moaned. I hated it when adults tried to patronise you by using your full name. The worst part was that with me, it usually worked. I was so used to being called "Kit" that when somebody called me by my full name, it came as such a shock that I had no choice but to feel inferior.

'Well?' Dad insisted, unrelenting as usual.

'Well . . . it was raining, and since Amanda's house is closer to school, I went in to stay until the rain stopped, but then we kind of lost track of time, and whaddaya know, I get home at six-thirty!' I said, and smiled, hoping that a light-hearted approach might calm him down.

Apparently I was wrong.

'Why didn't you call?' Dad demanded.

'We were worried sick about you, Katherine!' my mother added. 'You're fourteen years old! You're not old enough to run off without telling us where you are!'

Well, at least I'd been right about Amanda sounding like my mother.

I sighed. 'OK, I get it. I'm sorry.'

There was never any point in arguing with my parents. They were perhaps the most adamant people in the world . . . not to mention strict, over-protective, and paranoid. They seemed convinced that if ever I went anywhere without adult supervision, I'd run off with some weirdo, get beaten up, and wake up in some unknown place. Then again, that wasn't all that far from what _had_ happened.

'Sorry isn't good enough,' Mum said, shaking her head. 'We don't want you getting hurt.'

'Well I'm _not_ hurt, am I?' I pointed out.

'Not this time,' said Dad. 'But who knows what could happen next time.'

I sighed. 'OK. I'm sorry. It won't happen again.' Before they could keep arguing with me, I turned and headed to my room. 'I'm gonna get changed and hang my uniform out to dry, OK?'

  
  


As I pegged my uniform on my makeshift washing like - a piece of string tied to either end of my balcony - I had to wonder about why I'd reacted the way I had. I'd watched plenty of cartoons about kids who'd had crazy stuff happen to them, and it had always amazed me that they tried to keep it all a secret. It had always seemed to me that it would be so much easier if they just _told _their parents and acquaintances about what was going on. And yet here I was . . . I'd avoided telling my best friend what had happened, I'd lied to my parents . . . and for what?

It was simple, really. They never would have believed me, so there wasn't any point in trying. How could I ever expect someone else to believe me, when I didn't even believe it myself? It had all happened only a few hours ago, and already it seemed like a dream. And at the same time, I knew that it couldn't have been. Up until it had happened, I'd always felt as if I could understand pokémon . . . but not like I could now . . . not actual words. After Hugo had led me out of the Genesis Bushland, I'd begun to think that I must have imagined being able to understand pokémon . . . but I'd understood Amanda's wooper perfectly.

I sighed. I knew that I'd never be able to talk to anyone about what had happened, but at the same time . . . I needed to talk to someone more than anything.

'So, the kid came home after all!'

The was so lost in my thoughts that the voice almost made me jump. I groaned as I realised that I'd dropped my uniform, and snatched it up as I turned towards where the voice had come from. Sure enough, there, stepping out onto the balcony next to mine, was Taylor.

'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked bitterly, as I pegged my skirt up.

Taylor laughed. 'Hey, I _saw _you run off when the rain started. And I've been listening to your parents worry about you all afternoon. It was kind of entertaining, actually.'

'I bet it was,' I muttered, and turned to head back inside.

'Why'd you run off like that, anyway?' Taylor asked. 'I always knew you were a weirdo, but that was just plain crazy. What's so bad about a little rain?'

'It's none of your business,' I said, folding my arms as I faced him angrily. What right did he have to even ask what I'd done?

'Sure it is,' nodded Taylor. 'I'm thinking about using you as an example in my psychology project: "The freak who's afraid of Rain Dance".'

'Whatever,' I muttered, and was about to walk inside and slam the door, when I realised what he'd said. I turned back to him. '"Rain Dance"?'

'That's what I said,' nodded Taylor. He laughed. 'Oh come on, you didn't think that was ordinary rain, did you? It was a pokémon move.'

I stared at him. I didn't want to admit it, but Taylor just may have been right for once. That rain certainly hadn't felt normal to me . . . maybe it _was_ from Rain Dance. Was that why Ho-Oh had seemed so weak? I was no expert on pokémon moves, but I could remember hearing somewhere that Rain Dance caused fire-type attacks to become weaker . . . and Ho-Oh was a legendary fire pokémon . . . if Rain Dance had been in effect, no wonder it had become so weak!

Taylor laughed. 'Guess you're even stupider than I thought, kid.'

'And what would you know!?' I demanded. He was so irritating with his cocky attitude, pretending to know so much about me . . . but he didn't know _anything_ about me. I almost wanted to tell him then and there that I was more than he thought I was . . . that I was special, because _I_ had done the unbelievable and actually transformed into a pokémon! But I stopped myself, because there was no way that he'd believe me . . . and besides, I still had no idea if I _was _special . . . or if I was cursed.


	5. Chapter 4: Reunion

Note: Have you all read Vulpix's Pokédex entry on Pokémon Sapphire? This is how it reads: "Inside Vulpix's body burns a flame that never goes out. During the daytime, when the temperatures rise, this pokémon releases flames from its mouth to prevent its body from growing too hot.". Is it just me, or was that Pokédex entry written specifically for _Pilot Light_!? It just seems to relate perfectly! I love it when I make things up and they end up being true. =P   
Anyway while I'm here, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's been reading this story, and an especially big thanks to those of you who've posted reviews. ^_^ I hope you enjoy this chapter and the chapters to come! 

**Chapter Four - Reunion**

  
  


Realising that you've got a tonne of homework due the next day was even worse than usual when so many bizarre things have happened and your mind keeps wandering. I lay on my bed with a pen in my mouth, my exercise book on my chest, staring up at the ceiling. I'd been wracking my brains for hours, but nothing could explain it. How was it physically possible for a human to turn into a pokémon? It was unheard of! Surely it couldn't happen! But somehow, it had.

I sighed. What was the point in worrying about it? I knew that there was nothing I could do. Eustacia hadn't given me any answers, and she seemed to be a pretty intelligent pokémon - even though she was wild, she could understand human speech. I found myself wishing that I'd begged her for more information . . . I felt as if her lack of answers was as much my fault for not asking as it was her fault for not answering. And it was too late now - I'd always had a pretty good sense of direction, but I hadn't been paying attention on the way to Eustacia's garden, and I'd been blindfolded on the way out . . . so I had no hope of ever finding it again. And even if I could . . . I wasn't welcome there, because I was human.

Being a vulpix had been frightening . . . but even though it had only been a few hours ago, I almost found myself wishing that I could be one again. As a kid I'd always fantasised about becoming a pokémon . . . but when it had finally happened, I'd been too afraid to enjoy it. The fear had probably come from being worried that I'd never return to normal, but here I was, human again. If only I'd known that I would turn back, I would have tried to take more advantage of the situation. It could have really been fun.

I smiled as I began to imagine the things I could have done. Although I could understand pokémon now, I couldn't speak to them . . . as a vulpix, I could have a conversation with any pokémon I pleased. I could ask the eevee evolutions how they decided what to evolve into, I could ask ninjasks and shedinjas what it felt like to split into two beings when they evolved, I could ask aerodactyls how it felt to be revived from a fossil, whether they remembered their previous lives or not . . ..

I sighed. It was one thing to imagine, but I had no idea whether it could ever happen again. Especially since I still couldn't believe that it had happened in the first place.

Sitting up, I began idly flicking through my science textbook. I had three pages of questions to answer, and even though they were all pretty easy, I just wasn't in the mood. It wasn't that I was lazy, it was just impossible to concentrate on anything . . . how could anybody concentrate when something that incredible had happened to them?

Something on one of the pages caught my eye, and I flicked back to it. When I realised what it was, I let out a sigh. In the biology section of the textbook, there was a photo of a kecleon, grinning out at me with its oversized smile. Whether I would ever become a pokémon again wasn't really all that important. What I really had to wonder was . . . would I ever see Cam again?

  
  


Weeks passed, and then months, and the memories of that day began to blur and become little more than a dream. I'd go for days without even thinking about it, and then suddenly I'd remember it, and I'd wonder . . . had it ever happened? It all seemed so surreal, almost as if it had happened to somebody else and not me. Even though I would replay it in my mind, I'd see myself from the outside, as if I were watching a video, which only further fictionalised the event.

However, I didn't have time to think about it anymore. I was too busy getting ready for year nine camp. My grade was going camping in the Aruto National Park for a week. I'd narrowly survived a lecture from my parents about safety and responsibility (actually, I was quite impressed that they'd let me go on camp in the first place!), and was now packing my bags. Although I wouldn't admit it to anyone, I was a little nervous. I'd never really been away from home before in my whole life. I'd stayed the night at Amanda's place a few times, but that was only a few blocks away. I'd never been overseas, and I'd never been away from my parents for more than a night. My parents's over-protectiveness really got to me most of the time, and more than anything I wanted to break free of them, but deep down I knew that I probably wasn't capable of doing so. It always amazed me that some kids left home at ten to become pokémon trainers. I'd dreamed about doing that myself, but I had to face the fact that I wouldn't be able to.

Still, maybe this would be a chance to change all that. Despite the fact that I knew I was a sheltered person, I was a pretty good actor - I had a reputation of being one of the more strong-willed, self-confident girls in the grade. Perhaps this would be an opportunity to fulfil that reputation.

I smiled. This wasn't going to be just any old school camp. It was going to be the school camp where the new me would be born.

  
  


By five o'clock the following afternoon, the members of my grade were scattered around the camping grounds of Aruto National Park attempting to erect their tents. It was almost as if the teachers sought pleasure in watching our feeble struggling, as they stood by watching from the barbecues where they were preparing dinner.

I was in a group with Amanda and two other friends of ours - Natasha and Kimi. Amanda had brought her family's tent, which was a good size and easy to set up. At least, that was what she'd told us.

'Where does this go?' Natasha asked uncertainly, pulling a pole out of the tent bag.

'How exactly do we do this?' Kimi was busy trying to unfold the canvas.

I moaned. 'Just stop, before you ruin it!' I turned to Amanda. 'Did you actually bring the instructions?'

'I didn't think it would be so hard,' said Amanda innocently. 'But I'm sure I did pack them just in case. Let me check again.'

She turned to her bag and began sorting through it, which was no easy task considering how much stuff she'd managed to pack in there. I thought I'd been bad enough, but Amanda's luggage had turned out nearly twice the size of mine. I folded my arms, irritated. I should have known that something like this would happen.

'Found it!' Amanda exclaimed, pulling a thin piece of paper from the bottom of her bag.

'Finally!' I sighed, and held out my hand for it. She handed it to me, and I sighed with relief . . . but then I looked more closely at what she'd given me, and my expression fell. I looked up at Amanda, raising an eyebrow. 'Is this your idea of a joke?'

'What?' Amanda asked, genuinely confused.

'You mean to tell me that your "instructions" for putting up the tent are in fact a photo of the tent when it's already up?' I asked.

'Well yeah,' said Amanda, as if it were obvious. 'What else would they be?'

Natasha moaned. 'You're hopeless, Amanda.'

'Not to mention stupid,' I added. 'How do you expect to put up a tent when all we've got to go off is a photo of the end product? We're not exactly experts at tent-building, you know.'

'Well I'm . . . sure you can do it somehow . . .' said Amanda hopefully, bending over and picking up one of the poles.

I sighed, shaking my head. 'Give me that, let me do it.'

  
  


It took us at least an hour to finally get the tent up, and that was _with_ the help of five other students and two teachers. After we all threatened Amanda with what we'd do to her if she ever did something like this again, we ate dinner, listened to the camp instructors tell us the rules, and then went to bed. It had been a pretty boring first day, but hopefully the rest of the week would make up for that.

It was nearly midnight, but the four of us were still sitting in our sleeping bags talking to each other, our only light emanating from the small battery-charged torches we'd brought along. We all had our thumbs on the switches, ready to shut out that light the moment a teacher or camp instructor came near, so that we could pretend to be asleep. We'd already had three encounters with our year advisor, Mr Garrison, that night. He'd threatened to split us up _and_ give us all detention if we weren't quiet.

It was a new experience for me. My parents had never let me go to sleep over parties. They also didn't like me staying up too late, so I was practically falling asleep already. In fact, I was pretty sure that I'd fallen asleep briefly a few times.

'I wonder what lives in this park anyway,' Natasha whispered.

'Well it's a national park, so it must be full of native pokémon,' said Amanda.

Kimi gasped. 'You mean like . . . feraligatrs?'

'I guess so,' nodded Amanda. I shuddered. They sure were creepy pokémon.

'Why did they bring us here, then?' Kimi asked frantically. 'What if someone gets attacked?'

Amanda laughed. 'Feraligatrs hardly _ever_ attack people. They've got a reputation for being violent, but really they're very calm.'

'And how would you know?' I asked. 'When have you ever seen one in the wild?'

Amanda glared at me. 'I haven't, but my cousin's seen plenty.' She turned to the others. 'He's a pokémon trainer.'

'Really?' Natasha asked. 'That's pretty cool. Does he have lots of cool pokémon?'

'Yeah,' nodded Amanda. 'A charizard, a swellow, a gloom . . . oh! And the _funkiest_ quagsire ever!'

I sighed, shaking my head. Amanda had a habit of talking about her cousin's quagsire around me. It was starting to become almost as annoying as the way she set her wooper on me whenever I was at her house. Why couldn't she just accept the fact that I didn't like them? She'd always ask me why, and I wouldn't know how to explain it . . . I don't know if it was because they were so slippery and slimy, or because of their almost ghost-like little eyes and huge mouths, or if it was something else. There was something about their makeup that got to me. Not even I knew what it was, almost as if I'd forgotten what had made me so scared of them, but had kept it with me nonetheless, lying somewhere in my memory . . . just close enough to the surface to make it overpower me . . . but too far down for me to understand why.

Amanda laughed at my reaction. 'Of course, _Kit_ doesn't want to hear about it.'

'Why?' Natasha asked, looking at me curiously.

'You know,' smiled Kimi. 'That _thing _she has with woopers and quagsires.'

I narrowed my eyes. 'Yeah, well let me go out and grab a spinarak and bring it in here. See how you like it!'

Kimi's face went visibly sick, and she shook her head rapidly. She had a reputation for being petrified of bug pokémon. What gave her the right to make fun of me when _she_ had a fear that was just as ridiculous? I never understood why most girls were afraid of bug pokémon. Bugs were all so weak, and everyone knew that they couldn't really do much against you.

'That's cruel, Kit,' said Amanda.

'Oh!' I said sarcastically. 'Well _sorry_. I didn't realise it was cruel to pick on someone because they don't like certain pokémon!'

Amanda rolled her eyes. Perhaps it was because she and I were best friends, that she felt as if she had the right to pick on me whenever she wanted to. I knew that she only did it in fun, but it was something that I wasn't proud of, and hearing her mock me because of it certainly didn't feel like a friendly gesture.

'Do they have spinaraks here?' Kimi asked worriedly.

'They have spinaraks everywhere,' I said. 'But yeah, they're probably more common here 'cause there's no humans with their insect repellent to keep them away.'

Kimi looked as if she were going to faint.

'Kit!' Natasha exclaimed.

'What?' I asked. 'There's no point in lying to her, 'cause then she'll only get more upset when she does see them. At least now she's prepared.'

'I don't wanna sleep out here anymore . . .' Kimi bit her lip as her eyes darted around the tent nervously.

'It's OK,' said Natasha. 'They can't get in here.'

'Why keep telling yourself that?' I asked. 'Spinaraks can get anywhere.'

'Kit!' Natasha insisted, glaring at me.

I shrugged. 'Hey, I'm only being honest.'

'What's that noise?' Kimi asked, biting her nails nervously on one hand and pulling her sleeping bag around her more tightly with the other.

'Now look what you've done,' said Natasha. 'You've got her all jumpy.'

'Well hey, that's her fault for being so afraid,' I shrugged.

'You're so inconsiderate, Kit!' Amanda shook her head in disgust.

'Look who's talking,' I said.

'Be quiet!' hissed Kimi frantically. We all turned to her. 'I think something's out there.'

Natasha sighed. 'There's nothing there. Kit's just got you spooked.'

'No, really!' Kimi insisted. 'Listen!'

We obediently went quiet, if only to prove to Kimi that there was nothing there. Just as I was about to open my mouth to tell her so, I did hear something. I stopped, and listened harder. A voice cried out, some twigs snapped, a different voice growled something, some bushes rustled.

I looked over at Kimi. Even in the dull light of our torches, I could see how pale her face was, how wide her eyes were. And she was even shivering, her nail-biting becoming more rapid as her teeth chattered.

'What . . . was that . . .?' she asked shakily.

'Nothing we need to worry about,' said Natasha. 'The park rangers wouldn't have put us in an area where we were gonna get into any kind of trouble.'

'It's a national park,' I said. 'There are wild pokémon here. The rangers don't have any control over them, you know.'

'Kit!' hissed Natasha. 'You're not helping.'

The voice cried out again, but this time something about it connected with me. It sounded so desperate, so defenceless . . . and at the same time, so familiar. I couldn't possibly know the person who it belonged to . . . because I was almost certain that it was a pokémon cry. The only problem with that was that these days I found it difficult to distinguish between the voice of a human and the voice of a pokémon . . ..

The second voice snarled angrily, and the first one cried out in an even more high-pitched, frantic tone. I drew in a breath. I always found something empathetic about witnessing the pain of others . . . the shrieks themselves would transform into their own weapons, aimed not towards the one making them, but to anyone whose ears the sounds managed to reach. They would aim for morality, sympathy, and benevolence . . . the kinds of things that too many people labelled as human weaknesses. When they were struck hard enough, the self was unimportant and it was others that mattered.

'What if it's an ursaring . . . or . . . or a kangaskhan?' Kimi shivered.

'There aren't any ursarings in Aruto, everyone knows that,' I said. I crawled out of my sleeping bag. 'But if you're _that_ worried I'll go check it out.'

As I climbed over the others and made my way to the exit of the tent, I wasn't entirely sure why I was doing this under the pretence that I was worried about Kimi rather than the thing that had cried out. Maybe I knew that if I kept showing a lack of compassion for Kimi, I could be putting our friendship at risk. Or perhaps I didn't want to admit that ever since that day a few months ago, I'd felt more in touch with pokémon than with humans.

'Kit, don't go out there!' Kimi exclaimed as I unzipped the opening of the tent and stepped out. 'It could be dangerous!'

'Yeah, sure,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'The reason I'm going out there is to prove it's _not_ dangerous. You stay there, I'll go find out what's going on.'

Before she could argue with me, I zipped the tent back up and took a look around. A variety of tents cluttered the small clearing we were camped in . . . a distinct glow from the torches in our tent could be seen, but it seemed that everyone else had given up and gone to sleep. That dismissed my theory that the noises were probably just from some of the others mucking around.

I sighed, and headed towards the bushes where the noises had come from. It probably wouldn't be anything major - just a rattata or a murkrow or something. And if it were something more dangerous, I wouldn't be stupid enough to rush in and get myself hurt, I'd just head back and tell one of the camp instructors.

I pulled back some branches, stepped over some rocks and small plants. I'd barely walked a few metres into the bushes when I came across the source of the sound.

A pokémon stood atop a large rock. Although at this time of night I shouldn't have been able to make out what it was, the fire burning on the tip of its long tail lit up my vision. It provided only a small amount of light, but enough to make out the dark crimson scales, the sharp claws at the end of long arms and short legs, the short horn on the tip of its rigid head. It was a charmeleon . . . but what was it doing out here? I was no expert on pokémon, but I'd never heard of charmeleons living in the Aruto National Park.

The charmeleon turned to look at me, snarling. I backed away. Charmeleons could be very temperamental pokémon when trained . . . I didn't want to think about what wild ones would be like!

'What do you want?' the charmeleon snarled. His voice sounded . . . strange, somehow. It was so clear, so definite in its wording. But I didn't have time to worry about that, as I became aware of another voice on the ground in front of me. I looked down to see another, smaller pokémon, lying on the ground weakly, covered in scratches and burns. He weakly lifted his big head to look at me, and his dark beady eyes opened wide with shock.

'It's . . . that human . . .' he breathed, and then fell back to the ground, passed out.

I felt dizzy. I tried to swallow, but the tears that should have been forming in my eyes seemed to be clogging my throat instead. My mind went blank. It couldn't be . . . it couldn't be . . . no . . . this couldn't happen.

But it was, and it had happened. It was Cam, and he was hurt. No, worse than that. He was in fatal danger.

I drew in a deep breath and forced myself to look away from Cam and turn to the charmeleon. I felt rage spark up inside of me, the anger begin to flare up. How dare he do such a thing to Cam! Cam wasn't just any wild pokémon, he was my friend. The friend who'd helped me when I'd lost my identity, the friend who I'd never been able to thank because he'd been too afraid of my true self. The friend who I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to speak to again because of the communication barrier between human and pokémon.

'What did you _do_!?' I demanded, almost snarling my anger.

'I won the battle,' hissed the charmeleon, and crossed his arms across his chest. In my rage, I didn't even notice the uncommon event of a wild pokémon understanding my words.

'You hurt my friend!' I shouted, and took a determined step towards the charmeleon as I clenched my hands into fists.

'Friend?' the charmeleon laughed. He unfolded his arms and pointed a claw at me. 'You're a human. Humans and pokémon can never be friends!'

I narrowed my eyes. What if he was right? How could I ever really consider Cam a friend when I couldn't even communicate with him?

'You humans are all the same,' snapped the charmeleon, folding his arms again. 'You pretend to be all loving and caring towards pokémon but you're only out to use us for your pathetic trainer quests.'

'What would you know?' I demanded.

'More than you think,' the charmeleon snarled. 'I've had enough experience with you disgusting humans to know what you're like.'

'Then you should know that what you're accusing us of isn't true!' I said. I glanced over to where Cam was lying on the ground, passed out. 'Now tell me why you attacked him!'

'That's the harsh reality of being a pokémon,' said the charmeleon, and put his hands on his hips. 'You've gotta keep battling to keep getting stronger. And if you lose, you're nothing but a pathetic excuse for a pokémon. What's that thing you humans say? Survival of the fittest?'

'You're sick!' I exclaimed. 'I can't believe you go around beating up weaker pokémon just to boost your ego!'

'What was that?' the charmeleon snarled, narrowing his eyes.

'I said you're a cheap fake!' I said. 'If you're so obsessed with becoming stronger, why don't you fight someone who's a challenge, and not pick on someone weaker than you like Cam!?'

'This is none of your business anyway, human!' the charmeleon growled. 'Now get out of here before I make you suffer the same fate your so-called "friend" did!'

'And I bet you'd like that,' I said. 'Picking on a human because you know I don't have any attacks to defend myself with. Go ahead then, fight me if you want to lose all your honour!'

I kept telling myself to calm down. Kit, you're getting in way over your head. Maybe if this were a weaker pokémon like an oddish or a volbeat . . . but this was a charmeleon. No human stands a chance against a pokémon like that.

'That's it!' snarled the charmeleon, and drew in a deep breath. I gulped as I watched him pull his head back and then suddenly throw it forward, spitting a ball of flames at me. I gasped and told myself to drop to the ground and dodge the attack. But, to my surprise, I did no such thing.

Instead, I shot my right arm out and let the flames hit my forearm, as if I were trying to deflect the attack. As the fire touched my skin, I cried out in pain, feeling it twist and curl around my arm, igniting, scalding, melting. I stared in horror as the flames crept up my arm, onto my shoulders, where they met with my hair and set it alight, so that the fire began to burn into my brain, into my mind, into my memory . . ..

I fell to the ground in pain, but I was too weak to attempt to put the fire out. I let it consume me, turning my body into one flaming inferno, and as it did so I could feel my body changing as it burned, melting out of shape . . . and just as I felt my body regain a useable shape, the temperature dropped, and the flames were gone.

Moaning, I looked up at the charmeleon. Before I'd had time to register that he looked suddenly larger, he gasped in horror and took a few steps back.

'Impossible!' he exclaimed. 'Impossible! How could . . . how could that happen?'

I swallowed, and tried to pull myself back to my feet . . . when I realised that my arms were no longer there. Instead, I saw two short, furry, animalistic legs. I opened my eyes wide in shock, my heartbeat raced out of control, but I told myself not to be alarmed. It's not the first time this has happened, Kit, so don't be shocked. You know now that you can change back. You know now that this is safe. You can cope with this.

I pulled myself up onto my four legs and looked up at the charmeleon through my vulpine eyes.

'What are you?' he asked, shaking his head in horror. 'Not even a ditto can turn into a human! You . . . you . . . you're some kind of freak!'

I narrowed my eyes, and felt a snarl build up in my throat. 'You're the only freak around here. How dare you stoop so low as to attack weak pokémon and defenceless humans!'

'Get away from me!' the charmeleon exclaimed, backing away. 'Get away from me, you freak!'

With that, he turned tail and ran into the bushes behind him. Only a few seconds later, the light from the flame on his tail couldn't be seen anymore.

I sighed with exhaustion and fell to the ground. So it had happened again . . . I was a vulpix. But why? How? Although I felt more confident this time around, I was still worried, and still overcome with confusion. That charmeleon had been right. Not even dittoes, the pokémon which could transform into any other pokémon, could transform into humans. So what was it about me that gave me the ability to move from one extreme to the other - from human to pokémon - and back again?

There was no point in questioning it, though, because I knew that the answer didn't exist even in the deepest depths of my mind. Perhaps I would find my answer someday, but not now, and not by myself.

I turned my head weakly and saw Cam lying on the ground, still passed out. I sighed with worry and crawled over to him, nudged him with my nose.

'Cam, wake up,' I whispered. 'It's me, Kit. Remember me?'

I sighed. It was no use. I may have managed to scare that charmeleon away, but now I was in an even harder situation. I had no way to help Cam, and as a vulpix, I had no way of asking my friends to help. I didn't even have any way of telling them who I was.


	6. Chapter 5: Magma Battle

**Chapter Five - Magma Battle**

  
  


As I watched the motionless body of Cam, I wracked my brains for an idea. There had to be some way to help him. How did pokémon normally recover from their injuries? Trained pokémon were taken to Pokémon Centres, but wild ones . . . ? When I'd been injured, back when I'd first become a vulpix, Cam had taken me to Eustacia the healer. But she was all the way back in the Genesis Bushland, and even if I were able to get to Genesis, I wouldn't have any idea how to get to Eustacia. Perhaps there was another healer like her in the national park, but I had no hope of ever finding it.

I suddenly thought of something. Since this was a national park, the pokémon here were protected. The park rangers would have healing equipment to use on injured pokémon! With a smile, I turned and headed back to the clearing where our tents were pitched. The rangers' cabin was on the other side of the camp ground, so I would have to go past the tents to get there, but since everyone was asleep it wouldn't be a problem. I bounded across, not even realising how quickly and how well I'd adjusted to using my four legs.

'Kit hasn't come back yet . . . I'm starting to get really worried, guys . . ..'

At the sound of my name and Kimi's voice, I came to an abrupt halt. My ears twitched as I turned back to the tent I'd just passed. There were soft voices and a distinct glow coming from inside it. Uncertainly, I took a few steps towards it.

'She's probably just staying out there on purpose to mess around with you,' came Natasha's voice, sounding irritated. 'She's so mean sometimes.'

I narrowed my eyes and snarled. I was "mean", was I? Was that why I was on my way to help my injured friend? I shook my head, annoyed. She had no right to talk about me behind my back, especially when what she was saying wasn't true. There was no point in standing there and listening to this.

I turned and headed away from the tent, running for the rangers' cabin. It was a relatively small elevated wooden building, which I easily bounded up the steps of. I made it to the front door and pushed it with my nose, but it was locked, of course. I glanced around furtively, looking out for an opening to use. I spotted light coming out of a window above me, and realised that it was open. But how could I reach it?

'What're you up to?'

I was so startled by the voice that I nearly jumped. I took a deep breath, calming myself down, and looked up to where the voice had come from. I belatedly realised that sitting in the corner of the window was a pokémon. A creature around the same size as me, but with a larger head and smaller body; longer, thinner legs supporting smaller front paws and much larger back paws; one long, curled tail; large eyes with narrow slits for pupils; and its most distinctive feature, a golden charm in the centre of its forehead.

The meowth smiled down at me and stretched out along the windowsill. 'Scared ya, did I?'

'No,' I said. 'Just startled.'

The meowth chuckled. 'What're you doin' here? Looking for some free grub?'

I shook my head. 'No. My friend's sick and I need something that'll heal him.'

'That's a new one,' said the meowth. 'Most folks we get 'round here at night are scourin' 'round for food. So what exactly is yer friend's problem?'

'He was attacked by a charmeleon,' I said. 'He got knocked out, I think he's really badly hurt.'

'A charmeleon?' the meowth exclaimed. 'Don't get too many o' them 'round here. Then again, we don't get too many o' you either. Can't say I've ever seen a pokémon like you before. What are ya?'

I took a step back in shock. I was no pokémon expert, but I'd been able to tell that I was a vulpix by just looking at a distorted reflection in a dark pond. How could this meowth not know what I was? Then again, pokémon weren't formally educated like humans were, and I'd never seen a vulpix in the wild either, so I suppose if I'd never learned about them in school I wouldn't have known what one was either.

'A . . . a vulpix,' I said. Although a few months had passed since I had first become a vulpix, it still sounded so strange to hear myself say it. "I'm a vulpix"? I didn't feel quite comfortable about saying that. Sure, I was in the body of a vulpix . . . but I was still really a human . . . wasn't I?

'Oh,' said the meowth. 'I've heard the humans talk about you lot sometimes. Didn't think there were too many of ya in Aruto.'

I blinked. He was right. There weren't very many vulpixes in Aruto. They weren't a native species, and had only been introduced here by trainers who'd come from other places like Kanto or Hoenn. So why had the pokémon that I'd become been a vulpix? I shook my head. It didn't matter right now. Healing Cam was what was important.

'So can you help my friend?' I asked.

'Course I can,' smiled the meowth. 'I got access to every type of healing potion you can imagine. _And_ I know what's what.'

I smiled. 'So can you get him something that'll help?'

'Sure thing,' nodded the meowth. He turned to leave, then looked back at me for a moment. 'The name's Tom, by the way.'

I nodded. 'I'm Kit.'

'Interesting name,' said Tom. 'Well, back in a sec, don't you worry.'

I smiled as he leapt down off the windowsill into whatever room it opened into. Why weren't humans ever this helpful? If I'd told a human about Cam being in trouble, they probably wouldn't have cared. But this meowth was willing to help me, a total stranger, just out of the goodness of his heart. That was a rare trait to find in a human.

I suddenly felt a lot more comfortable about being a pokémon. Being able to communicate with them was amazing, but the most fulfilling part was the acceptance they gave you. Cam, Tom . . . Dale, Dena, Tama, Porter, Eustacia . . . they'd all been so kind to me, so willing to help, so understanding. Then there were humans like Amanda, who made fun of me for their own selfish amusement.

I shook my head. I couldn't think that about my best friend! I was just in a bad mood. It wasn't Amanda's fault that she joked around with me . . . it was part of her culture, every teenage human did it.

The pokémon, though . . . they were all so friendly . . . even though I'd been so afraid that first time I'd become a vulpix . . . I felt now as if I were more at home being a pokémon. With a smile, I looked down at my paws, turned my head back and glimpsed at my fan of tails. Yes, I enjoyed being a vulpix! Maybe it would be better if I just stayed this way forever.

No . . . that couldn't be right. I would miss my human friends, I would miss my home, I would miss playing the guitar, I would miss painting . . . I would even miss my parents. I sighed. No, I couldn't ever be satisfied with living as a pokémon, because I'd lose my familiarity, I'd lose the things I loved.

'Hello? Kit?'

The voice knocked me out of my thoughts. I shook my head and looked up. Tom was sitting at the window, a small can of some sort beside him. I smiled.

'Here, catch!' he called, and hit the can with a paw, knocking it down.

'Woah!' I exclaimed, and without thinking, tried to reach out and grab it with my hands . . . of course, my hands weren't there any more, only my paws, so all I succeeded in doing was losing my balance and falling flat on my face, only to have the can land on my head and bounce off. I moaned, pulling myself up, and heard Tom laugh.

'What'd you think you was doing?' he asked, as he leapt down from the windowsill and looked at me. 'Tryin' ta catch like a human?' He laughed again.

I forced a laugh to cover up my embarrassment. I stepped over to the can and bent down to it, opening my mouth and grabbing it between my teeth. It was a lot simpler to do than I had expected, and I lifted it up easily.

I was about to thank Tom for what he'd given me, when I realised I couldn't talk with the can in my mouth. So when I opened my mouth to speak, I clumsily dropped the can, and Tom laughed again.

'You're funny!' he said. 'I've never seen such a clumsy pokémon. Are all vulpixes like you?'

I sighed. I didn't even know what vulpixes were like. I'd never even met one before . . . suddenly being a pokémon didn't feel so comforting anymore. As a vulpix, I had no family, no one to rely on, no one to relate to.

'Who knows,' I muttered, and Tom went silent as I reached for the can again. 'Thanks for this.'

'Oh, no hassle,' said Tom, as I bent over the picked the can up again.

  
  


'Cam! Cam, can you hear me?'

I pressed my paw against the can again, spraying more of the healing potion onto the kecleon's still body. A few more sprays, and I saw him stir. His arms twitched, his little eyes slowly opened and blinked a few times. He raised his head and looked at me, and his jaw dropped open in shock.

'Kit!' he exclaimed. I smiled. The kecleon smiled back, and pulled himself to a sitting position. 'What . . . what are you doing all the way out here?'

'I was gonna ask you the same thing,' I said. I'd met Cam in the Genesis Bushland, back near Spectrum City. Seeing him all the way out here in the Aruto National Park had come as a real shock.

Cam sighed. 'Some humans brought me here.'

I blinked. 'Humans brought you here? Why would they do that?'

'I don't know,' said Cam, shaking his head. 'They caught me in a cage and brought me here in one of their moving machines. I was so afraid that they were going to hurt me . . . but then they just opened the cage and released me here.' He sighed. 'This is a nice enough place, but it's not my home. I don't want to be here.'

The poor thing . . . he was stuck out here in this unfamiliar place, with no way of getting back to his home. I didn't understand why humans would bring him here . . . and whatever their reason, they had no right to take him unwillingly from his home.

Cam sighed. 'Well, how about you, Kit? How did you get here?'

'Uh . . . I . . . well, the same thing, really,' I said. Well, I wasn't really lying -- I _had_ been right here by humans!

'Really?' Cam asked, and I nodded, but he didn't seem convinced. He shrugged, deciding to trust me. 'That's so strange. Did you live in the Genesis Bushland too?'

I paused, then nodded. Now I was lying, but it was easier than having to explain it to him.

'I'd never seen you there until that day I found you,' said Cam. He hesitated. 'What made you leave straight after Eustacia healed you? I . . . I didn't even get to see how you were.'

I swallowed uncertainly. I could try to explain it to him, but what were the chances of him believing it? That charmeleon hadn't been able to believe it, Eustacia hadn't been able to believe it . . . even _I_ couldn't believe that I somehow had the ability to change from human to pokémon and back again. So how was I going to explain it to someone who'd never even seen the change take place? I sighed. But if I didn't tell him, Cam would think I was some heartless vulpix who didn't even have the courage to thank the one who'd helped her so much.

'Cam . . .' I ventured. The kecleon tilted his head and looked at me curiously, as if sensing that I was about to tell him something unusual, something important. 'There's something I have to tell you. I'm not . . . I'm not actually a vulpix.'

Cam blinked for a moment, then scratched his head uncertainly. 'Um . . ..'

I could tell that he didn't believe me, but he didn't want to offend me by saying so. I sighed, and opened my mouth to explain further.

But before I had the chance, I heard movement ahead of me, and looked up sharply. Cam got to his feet and turned around, also hearing the sound. My ears twitched as I listened harder, and soon made out the sound of footsteps, of branches snapping, bushes being brushed aside.

Someone was coming. I turned to Cam, alarmed.

'Quick, in here!' he hissed, as he turned and hurried towards the bushes at his side. I followed him, both of us diving in behind the grasses and turning around, peering through the gaps between the leaves.

Soon enough, two tall figures came into my vision. They seemed to be humans, but in the darkness I couldn't quite be sure whether they were humans or humanoid pokémon like machokes or blazikens.

'I don't see anything,' muttered one of them, a bitter female voice. I strained my ears to try to figure out whether she had been speaking in human or pokémon language, but I still wasn't able to tell the difference. 'This is such a waste of time, you know Leon's always wrong.'

'That's not true,' said the other, a deep, calm, male voice. 'And Poochyena's definitely picking something up.'

I belatedly realised that on the ground in front of the two taller figures, was a smaller creature, a pokémon. As my eyes began to adjust to the darkness, I saw that it had a similar body structure to myself, but with a rough, dark coat, one short tail, and a more shapely snout which it had to the ground, sniffing furiously. It seemed to be a trained pokémon . . . those taller figures must certainly have been humans, then.

'Big deal,' muttered the female. 'That mutt's even more hopeless than Leon. If you're stupid enough to believe that a girl can turn herself into a vulpix' - I felt Cam looking at me - 'go ahead and go on your wild pelipper chase, but I've got better things to do.'

Just as the woman was about to turn and leave, the poochyena lifted her head and looked straight at us. I gulped as she bared her sharp teeth into a grin, her yellow eyes almost glowing in the darkness.

'There!' she yapped. 'I found her!'

I turned to Cam frantically, and his wide mouth fell open in helplessness. He swallowed. 'Quick Kit, you get out of here, I'll keep them distracted.'

'No way!' I exclaimed, shaking my head. I wasn't going to let Cam get himself hurt all over again! It was me they were after . . . there was no reason for Cam to get caught up in all of this.

'What is it, Poochyena?' the man asked. 'Found something?'

I realised that since these two were ordinary humans, they were unable to understand pokémon speech. I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. At least this way I'd be able to talk to Cam without them knowing what I was saying, but on the other hand . . . I wouldn't be able to talk my way out of it if they got me.

'In there!' Poochyena barked. 'In the bushes!'

She ran towards us, and without thinking, I chose not to turn and run, but instead, I leapt out of the bushes into the humans' clear vision. I stood up determinedly, as if to tell them, "Here I am, now come and get me".

'Kit!' Cam exclaimed. 'What're you doing?'

'A vulpix,' muttered the woman, unimpressed. 'I'm terrified.'

'You heard what Leon said,' the man told her. 'This is no ordinary vulpix.'

'Whatever,' said the woman, shaking her head.

'What do your masters want with me?' I asked the poochyena.

'You'll find out soon enough when we capture you,' she grinned. I narrowed my eyes.

'I'm nothing special,' I said. 'Just a vulpix. What could you possibly want with me?'

Poochyena laughed. 'You don't scare me. I know you're not an ordinary vulpix. I can smell human on you!'

I took a step back, shocked. I knew that poochyenas had good senses of smell, but could this one really tell that I was a human just by smelling me? Surely not . . . perhaps I could get around this.

'I'm a trained pokémon,' I said. 'You can smell my trainers.'

'Yeah right!' Poochyena laughed. 'I can tell just by looking at you that you're not trained! You're the weakest-looking vulpix I've ever seen!'

I glared at her, and couldn't help but snarl angrily. She was right, I had no training, but how dare she insult me for it! I'd rather be a free vulpix with no training than a human-trained poochyena who obviously just did all her master's dirty work!

'Oh, I'm so scared!' Poochyena sarcastically. 'Is the little weakling vulpix gonna _attack_ me?'

'Poochyena!' the man called, and Poochyena turned to look at him. 'We don't have time for you to sit around and talk. We've gotta catch that vulpix!'

'Right!' nodded Poochyena, and turned back to me. 'Sorry to do this to you, sweetie.'

I snarled, unimpressed by her sarcasm. Instead of attacking me, though, Poochyena lifted her head to the sky and let out a sharp howl. I stared at her, confused, before she lowered her head and barred her teeth at me, and I could see how much more pumped for battle she had become. Was that some kind of pokémon move she'd just used? I didn't even know. If only I'd studied harder when we'd learnt about pokémon moves in science . . . but that was the least of my troubles right now!

'Now Poochyena,' said the man, and pointed at me. 'Bite attack!'

'Take this!' Poochyena growled, as she leapt at me, paws outstretched, jaw open and ready to attack. Horrified, I didn't even think to defend myself, and felt the full weight of her attack as she knocked me to the ground and sunk her teeth into the back of my neck.

I cried out in pain as the pokémon's sharp fangs dug through my fur and pierced my skin. Thrashing about frantically, I managed to knock the poochyena off me, but I just didn't possess the strength to fight back. I tried to pull myself to my feet, but the shock of the pain had made me too weak to even stand up, and I fell straight back down to the ground.

'_This_ is the vulpix you're after?' the woman asked mockingly. 'Look at how weak it is, that's just pathetic! I can't believe Leon didn't knock it out while he had the chance.'

I growled, and looked up to Poochyena. She stood proudly on all fours, looking down at me with a triumphant smile on her face. There was no way I could let that little puppy beat me so easily! No . . . I couldn't give up like this!

I took a deep breath and forced my energy into my legs, pushing myself up to a standing position. I stood there shakily for a moment, until I finally found my balance and turned to Poochyena, snarling. But I couldn't even snarl for very long, before I found myself lapsing into a pant, weakly attempting to regain my breath.

'Aww, look at that,' Poochyena laughed. 'The little vulpix wants to fight back.' She lowered her head, battle-ready. 'Well, you're determined, I'll give you that. But you're also stupid if you're willing to take on an opponent as strong as me.'

'Poochyena, finish it off!' the man ordered.

'With pleasure,' grinned Poochyena, and leapt for me again. I drew in a deep breath and shut my eyes tightly, bracing myself for the blow. I knew that she was right - I was stupid to think that I could fight back.

'Kit, no!'

The voice startled me, and I looked up only to see Cam leap out of the bushes and meet Poochyena mid-air, successfully saving me from her attack and knocking her to the ground. She growled as she thrashed about angrily, but Cam refused to let go, pinning her to the ground with his long arms.

'What on earth!?' the woman exclaimed. She turned to the man. 'Did you see that?'

'Of course I did, I'm not blind!' snapped the man.

'But that kecleon just attacked Poochyena!' the woman said, shocked. 'It's almost like it was defending the vulpix!'

That was exactly what he was doing. I stared at Cam in awe, amazed at his benevolence . . . even after the first time he'd helped me, when I hadn't even thanked him . . . he was willing to risk himself for me. That was the kind of spirit that I'd never been able to believe could ever really exist . . . that someone could be so concerned about the safety of others that he would prioritise them above himself. I felt tears in my eyes. Cam had no reason to put himself in danger!

'Cam, stop!' I cried out, and took a step towards the brawl.

'Kit, get out of here!' Cam called back. 'I'll hold her off until you can get away!'

'No way!' I said, shaking my head. 'I'm not gonna let you do that! I'm not gonna let you get yourself hurt to save me!'

'I won't get hurt, Kit!' Cam said, but anyone could tell that he was lying. 'Please, just get away!'

'That's a pretty tough kecleon,' said the woman, observing the battle calmly. I looked up at her, appalled. How could she stand by and watch? How could she be so cold-hearted, to actually stand there and watch as Cam put himself in danger like that . . . ?

But wasn't that just what I was doing?

'Don't let that vulpix get away!' the man yelled. 'Poochyena, knock that stupid kecleon off you and fight back!'

'I can't!' growled Poochyena, kicking and biting at Cam but unable to do anything against him.

'This is hopeless,' said the woman, shaking her head. 'Numel, you'd better see what you can do.'

I noticed a flash of light out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see a pokémon materialise. A small creature, but taller than the rest of us . . . he stood on four short, rounded legs, his body was not much more than a lump, and his round head extended from a long neck. He looked around, blinking lazily, and then yawned.

'Numel, stop being lazy,' ordered the woman. 'Get in there and apprehend that vulpix!'

'Not right now,' murmured Numel, leaning his head down and rubbing an eye with a paw. 'It's the middle of the night.'

'Numel!' the woman stamped her foot angrily, clenching her hands into fists.

This pokémon didn't seem like it was going to be too much trouble, so I turned back to where Poochyena was still struggling to break free of Cam's hold. Just as my eyes fell on them, I saw Poochyena manage to sink her teeth into Cam's arm, and in the shock of the attack, Cam let go of her, falling back.

'Oh no, Cam!' I exclaimed, and ran forward. I leant down to Cam and pushed my snout under his back, helping him to his feet.

'Kit, please!' Cam insisted. 'Get out of here!'

'No way!' I said, shaking my head.

'You two are pathetic,' snarled Poochyena. 'I can take down both of you in one hit!'

'Oh yeah!?' I challenged her, stepping towards her determinedly.

'Kit, what're you doing!?' Cam exclaimed. 'You know you can't beat her!'

'Your little buddy's right,' said Poochyena. 'You must be some kind of masochist, kid. But hey, that's fine by me.'

With that, she leapt towards me and knocked me onto my back. I struggled to push her off me, but being on my back took away my control, and it was impossible to overpower her from where I was. Still pinning me to the ground, Poochyena lifted her head to the sky once more and howled.

'Kit, look out!' Cam exclaimed, rushing at Poochyena with his arms outstretched, as if to try and push her off. Before he had a chance, Poochyena shot her head back down and head-butted him back. Overpowered, he fell back and landed in the dirt.

Poochyena opened her jaws, and I stared up at her in horror. As light glinted off her teeth, the rest of her dark body seemed to blend into the night air, until all that I could see were her razor-sharp teeth and those menacing yellow eyes. I shook my head in fright, in helplessness, but she wasn't going to give in. She shot her head down to me, and buried her teeth into my neck. I howled in pain, and thought I heard my howls turn to screams, but before I could make any sense of the situation, I blacked out.


	7. Chapter 6: Golden Sun and Silver Moon

Chapter six is finally here - sorry about the long wait! It's the last day of semester tomorrow so I have a six week break in which I'll try to get lots of this story written. Hopefully I'll be able to start posting once a week soon.   
There's a picture of the cave painting which Kit sees in this chapter at The Vulpix Club (the link to which is on my profile) - to get to it, go to "Photos", then "Personal Albums", then "Pilot Light". I know it's pretty crappy, but oh well. =P 

**Chapter Six - Golden Sun and Silver Moon**

  
  


'Ah, so you're awake.'

The unfamiliar voice startled me into full consciousness. I blinked and looked over to where the voice had come from. A tall man wearing what appeared to be a ranger's outfit - khaki shorts and shirt -- was standing beside me. I belatedly realised that I was lying down, and pulled myself into a seated position, finding myself in a bed.

'We were so worried . . .' a timid voice ventured, and I looked to the end of the bed to see Kimi looking at me with concern, Amanda and Natasha standing to either side of her. Unsure and confused, I looked back to the ranger.

'Wh . . . what happened?' I asked weakly, then put a hand to my forehead, feeling dizzy.

'Your friends here found you passed out in the bush,' said the ranger. He paused. 'Do you remember anything about what happened?'

I blinked, and forced myself to think. Yes, I did remember . . . I'd been attacked by a poochyena . . . but I hadn't been myself . . . I'd been a pokémon . . . I looked down at my hands quickly, and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that they were there. So I was human again. But of course I was! Suddenly the idea of being a pokémon seemed so absurd, so unrealistic, so impossible. I strained my mind. Had I really changed into a pokémon, or had I just imagined it? Even though I felt as if it hadn't been the first time it had happened, surely it had to have just been a dream. Dreams could often feel like memories. You could wake up from one dream and feel like you'd dreamed it before even if you hadn't.

'When you found me,' I said, looking over at my friends. 'Was I . . . err . . . I'm not sure how to put this . . . was I . . . myself?'

Natasha raised an eyebrow, Kimi blinked, and Amanda rolled her eyes.

'You were passed out,' she said. Then she paused. 'Kit . . . do you remember what happened to you? Do you remember there being . . . Team Magma agents?'

I blinked, shocked. 'Team Magma?'

She nodded, and I thought for a moment. I remembered two humans, yes . . . and they had been trainers, I'd worked that much out . . . but Team Magma? No way, what would Team Magma agents be doing in the middle of the national park? And what could they possibly want with me? But hang on, hadn't I heard something about Team Magma before? I'd known about it for years now - everyone had - but recently something had happened, or something had been said, that had made Team Magma more noteworthy, perhaps more threatening, in my mind. I shook my head. I was probably just imagining that, too.

'Kit, when we found you . . . there were two people from Team Magma trying to take you away . . .' said Amanda, and bit her lip nervously.

'What!?' I exclaimed, and then remembered. Those two humans had been after me because they'd somehow found out that I wasn't just an ordinary vulpix . . . and if my friends had found me passed out as a _human_, that must have meant that I'd changed back in front of those two trainers' eyes . . . so if they'd had any doubts about my ability to transform, those doubts would have been washed away. And now that they knew, what were they going to do about it?

'I heard the commotion and came to see what was going on,' explained the ranger. 'When I sent out my poliwrath they knew they didn't stand a chance, so they ran off. I tried to follow them, but they managed to get away.'

'So now there are some psychotic criminals in the middle of the national park where a hundred teenagers are camping for a week, is that it?' I asked, unimpressed by his attempts to stop the Team Magma agents. It probably wasn't my place to comment, since _I'd_ been defeated by them easily, but this ranger was an experienced pokémon trainer, and I had only been a low-level vulpix with no battle experience. Surely he could have stopped them if he'd tried harder. But maybe I was just angry about losing that battle, and needed someone to take it out on.

'They won't stay here,' said the ranger. 'Not now that they know the rangers here are all pokémon trainers. But I must warn you, don't tell any of the other students. I don't want anyone getting upset.'

'What, so you'd rather they get shocked into fear and helplessness when they _do_ see the Team Magma agents?' I asked. 'Of course we have to tell them. They've gotta know the precautions.'

'Excuse me, young lady,' the ranger raised his voice, folding his arms across his chest. 'You're not the one in charge here. And you're lucky I'm even letting you stay here after you ran off into danger like that. _You_ were given the precautions and you chose not to follow them. You're lucky I don't have you sent home.'

I ground my teeth and clenched my hands into fists, but forced myself not to give into the temptation to talk back at him. He was right - I _wasn't_ the one in charge. And he could have me sent home if he wanted. The last thing I needed was for my parents to find out what had happened. Knowing my parents, I'd never be allowed out of the house again.

'Whatever,' I muttered.

The ranger turned to the others. 'You girls understand? I don't want any of the other students getting upset, so don't tell anyone.'

My friends nodded, and I shook my head with a sigh. They had to learn not to be so obedient.

  
  


The following night, the year nine students of Spectrum High School were sitting around a massive campfire. After a day of orienteering, archery and bush walks, we had settled down for what the camp instructors had labelled "nighttime activities". However, this particular night's events involved no action whatsoever - all we were doing was sitting around listening to the instructors tell stories. None of them were particularly interesting stories either; they were all about the history of the national park, the kind of stuff they expected us to be interested in but which no teenager really cared about. Many of the students had brought along sleeping bags, pillows or stuffed toys, and as a result, were nearly falling asleep.

' . . . you see, the native Arutonians were always great story-tellers,' the camp instructor was saying when I decided to tune in to see if the stories were getting any more interesting.

'I can see he's not a descendant of the native Arutonians, then,' I muttered, and Amanda laughed.

I moaned as the instructor continued to drone on. More than anything I just wanted to get out of here. Get some sleep, maybe. I was still tired after staying up so late last night, not to mention after the events that had occurred. I sighed and rested my elbows against my knees, my chin against my hands, and stared into the campfire ahead of me. Despite how exhausted and bored I was, there was something comforting, perhaps even rejuvenating, about the curls of the flames, the crackling of the wood as it burned.

'Not many people are familiar with native Arutonian myths, and it's a shame, because they're all such great stories,' the instructor continued. 'Now of course, back in the days of the natives, there was none of this technology and science that we've come to rely on so much today. So in order to explain the way the world worked, they told stories which held theories about how things came to be. Most of these stories involved pokémon, since even though the conveniences of pokéballs and Pokémon Centres weren't around then, pokémon and humans still shared a strong bond with one another.'

I almost laughed. As if he knew the first thing about humans and pokémon having a strong bond. I'd heard trainers and pet owners constantly go on about how close they were with their pokémon, but I'd never owned a pokémon in my life, and I was confident that I knew a whole lot more about bonding with pokémon than they did. Had they ever had a chance to talk to pokémon, to really know what they feel and what they believe? No. Had they ever experienced a battle first-hand, been right there in the centre of the action, felt the impact of a pokémon's attack head-on? No. Of course they hadn't. I was the only one who could _really_ empathise with pokémon.

'Now one of my favourite native Arutonian stories is the story of how pokémon themselves came into existence, so that's the one I'm going to tell to you tonight. You see, the natives were very close to nature, and since they knew nothing about the prominent religions in the rest of the world, they treated nature itself like a sort of god. In particular, they worshipped the sun and the moon. Tomorrow we'll be taking a look at some native cave paintings right here in the national park, and we'll see there some depictions of how the Arutonians saw the sun and the moon. Both of them are personified into living beings . . . of course, the paintings are very abstract and are also quite faded, but both the sun and the moon appear as big creatures with long necks and large wings. Now, that's just setting the scene for you. The story of the creation of pokémon goes like this.'

I moaned. I couldn't believe he expected us to sit there and listen to some primitive story told by people who clearly had no idea what they were on about. So what if they worshipped the sun and the moon? These days we knew enough about the world to know that those two celestial bodies were far from being deities. Why did we need to bother hearing about ancient myths, when we knew that they weren't true? It was just a waste of time.

'Sun and Moon had been rivals since the beginning of the time. Sun brought light and warmth to the earth, while Moon brought darkness and coldness. The two were constantly arguing over which of their gifts to the earth were more important, and sometimes these arguments turned into fights. When Sun's anger got out of control, so would the heat that she brought, and this would start fires on the earth which would cause destruction. And when Moon's anger got out of control, so would his coldness, and this would cause the tides to shift and flood the earth, which also caused destruction. So the world was constantly shifting between fire and flood, and eventually the humans couldn't stand it anymore, so they pleaded with their gods to stop fighting.

'However, Sun and Moon couldn't come to an agreement, so they decided that they would divide each day between the two of them. Now of course, the native Arutonians knew nothing about the earth being round and there being different time zones across the world, so to them, this explained why day and night existed. Day was when Sun was having her turn controlling the earth, and night was when Moon was having his turn controlling the earth.

'Now, the harmony between Sun and Moon didn't last for long. Moon started to realise that humans slept when it was his turn to control the earth, and were only active when it was Sun's turn to control. This made Moon very angry, because he didn't feel that humans valued his gifts to the earth as much as they valued Sun's. So he decided that he would create his own creatures to inhabit the night and sleep during the day. At least, that's what he said he was going to do, but deep down he wanted to create creatures more powerful than humans so that his creatures would overthrow humans and night would rule over day.

'So Moon got to work creating his creatures, and in order to make them more powerful than humans, he gave them special powers, and the ability to grow into more powerful versions of themselves as they became stronger. He considered this his most ingenious idea, because when he placed the creatures on the earth, they appeared to be weak and innocent and easily controlled by humans, but eventually they would grow bigger and stronger and be able to overpower humans. These creatures, as you probably guessed, were pokémon. Since Moon's coldness controlled the tides of the ocean, he knew that his best way to conquer Sun would be to make himself many allies which could use the ocean as a source of power, which is why there are more water-type pokémon than any other type.

'So, originally, all pokémon were nocturnal, that is, they slept during the day and were active during the night. Sun and Moon were in harmony once more, because Sun got to rule over humans during the day and Moon got to rule over pokémon during the night. For a long time, humans and pokémon never knew that the other existed, because day and night never crossed over, they were like two separate worlds.

'However, eventually some of the pokémon found themselves unsuited to the night, and decided to see what would happen if they stayed awake when day came. So they did, and they were shocked when they discovered humans. The humans, too, were shocked to see pokémon, so the two species stayed away from each other. Eventually, though, many more pokémon decided to see what day was like, and Moon began to realise that he was losing many of his allies. He became furious, so he ordered the pokémon who were still loyal to him to attack those who had converted to Sun.

'Now, the Moon pokémon began to attack, but they soon discovered that Sun's pokémon were much more powerful than themselves. Moon was shocked, and didn't understand how the traitor Sun pokémon could defeat the Moon pokémon who were loyal to their creator. Then Sun showed Moon what was different about the Sun pokémon. It turned out that the Sun pokémon had become curious about humans, and humans had become curious about the Sun pokémon, so the two tried to communicate with each other, and although they couldn't understand each other's words, they realised that the powers of pokémon could only ever truly be realised with the help of humans to train them. So the Sun pokémon had joined forces with humans, and that was why they were able to defeat the Moon pokémon.

'Of course, Moon was furious when he realised this, and refused to believe that humans and pokémon were meant to be partners. He vowed that one day he would defeat Sun once and for all, and the Moon pokémon would destroy both the Sun pokémon and the humans. Of course, that day never came, but it makes for an interesting story nonetheless.'

  
  


The next morning we'd been forced to get up bright and early and put on our long pants and covered shoes for another bushwalk. The camp instructor who'd told us that stupid story about the sun and the moon was leading us on an expedition to the cave where we were to find some native Arutonian cave paintings. Obviously, none of the students were too thrilled about this, but we went along anyway - it wasn't as if we had any choice in the matter.

We'd been split up into groups of twenty which were to take turns going on the trek. The other groups were doing other activities like canoeing or rock-climbing, which we would also do in turn. I was in the first group to set out on the bushwalk, and I soon realised that the teachers were trying to make us socialise with students we didn't normally talk to, because while Kimi was in my group, Amanda and Natasha weren't. I had to be somewhat grateful, though, because at least I had one of my good friends with me, even if she would probably spend the whole walk worrying about wurmples and caterpies.

After an hour's walk, we practically collapsed inside a small opening in the rocks. After the camp instructor gave us a lecture on how unfit we all were, he pointed our attention to some markings on the wall. So these were the famous cave paintings we'd all been oh-so-eagerly waiting for.

'If you look here, these are the native Arutonians' depictions of the sun and the moon,' he told us, pointing to some barely visible patterns. 'If you remember from the story I told you last night, the natives worshipped the sun and the moon, and so they were given beast-like forms to truly bring them to life.'

I looked over at the pictures he was referring to. The lines were very faint, so much that I probably wouldn't have noticed them if he hadn't pointed them out. I squinted and tried to make sense of the lines. They didn't really look much like beasts to me, just a few curves over the rocks that vaguely may have made some kind of shape. I could see how they were supposed to be the sun and the moon, though - one of the "beasts" had an iconic sun on it, and the other had a crescent moon on it. Apart from that, though, I didn't really see how they fit into that legend that'd been droned at us the night before.

'And over here is a representation of Sun and Moon's control over the earth,' said the instructor, pointing to another picture on the wall. I raised an eyebrow. This one was simply a circle with the stop half coloured yellow and the bottom half coloured white, with another sun on the yellow half and moon on the white half. 'This is the world divided in half, with Sun controlling one half and Moon controlling the other.'

'Looks kind of like a pokéball,' one boy commented, and his friends laughed. He looked at them defensively. 'It does! See how one half is one colour and the other half is a different colour.'

'So what?' one of his friends said. 'May as well say it looks like a voltorb or an electrode.'

The boy sighed. 'Fine. I was just making a comment.'

'Of course, pokéballs weren't around back then,' said the instructor. 'The native Arutonians had no way of keeping pokémon under control like we do. As you can imagine, training pokémon back then would have been very difficult.'

'Hang on,' I said, eyeing the cave painting and then turning to the instructor. 'Last night you said the natives had no idea about different time zones and all that. So how would they even know the earth was round?'

The instructor laughed, looking back at the painting. 'When I said it represented the world, I didn't mean that it was supposed to be an actual picture of the world. These paintings are very abstract. The circle doesn't represent the world physically so much as the world through time. The top half represents day, when Sun had control over the world, and the bottom represents night, when Moon had control over the world.'

'That's stupid,' I said. 'It looks more like it's representing how while it's day in half the world, it's night in the other half.'

'Well, if you want to read it like that, then feel free to,' said the instructor. 'The thing that's so great about myths is that they can explain a lot of things that they weren't even meant to explain. You can apply them to more than just one situation. I know a lot of people think that myths are just a waste of time, but just keep in mind that behind every myth, there's always a little bit of truth.'


	8. Chapter 7: Communication Gap

**Chapter Seven - Communication Gap**

  
  


That afternoon, it was our group's turn to go canoeing. I was a little nervous because I'd never been canoeing before and it wasn't something I'd ever pictured myself doing. I didn't even know how to swim properly . . . I'd had some basic lessons as a kid but I'd hated it so much that I'd always tried to find ways to get out of it. Eventually my parents had given up and let me stop learning altogether. One part of me wished that I'd kept it up, but deep down I was glad that I hadn't. There was something about water that bothered me, and I was glad to stay away from it.

On this particular day, though, I had no choice but to go along. I was shocked to discover that Kimi had actually been canoeing a few times with her older brother, so at least having her as a partner would reduce my chance of capsizing and falling into the water. On the other hand, I was a little annoyed that Kimi had experience and I didn't. That would make me look so weak. A lot of the people in my grade already thought I was a weak person, because I was so short and because I was hopeless at sport. I'd been hoping that I'd be able to change that image of me on camp, but so far I hadn't done a great job of that.

The canoes were lined up along the shore, and we were fastening our life jackets. Kimi, as well as most of the other students, was complaining about the fact that we were being forced to wear the things.

'They look so silly!' she said, as she pulled the straps together and latched the clip in place. 'If anyone takes a photo of me in this I'll regret it for the rest of my life!'

'Deal with it,' I said, irritated. 'It's a safety condition to let us go canoeing. The camp wouldn't be allowed to let us do it at all if they didn't make us wear these things.'

I made it sound like I was bearing the facts of life, but deep down I was grateful that we'd been forced to wear life jackets. No one in my grade knew that I couldn't swim, and I didn't want to embarrass myself if our canoe did happen to capsize. I didn't want to have to be rescued, I wanted to be able to save myself.

'Now, once your life jackets are fastened, each of you take one end of the canoe and drag it to the wharf,' the instructor told us.

'You ready?' I asked. Kimi nodded, and I grabbed the front handle of the canoe, lifting it into the air as she took the rear end. Pain shot through my hand and up my arm, and I cringed. For a hollow, buoyant hunk of wood, it sure was heavy!

'This thing is so heavy!' Kimi exclaimed, voicing my thoughts. I just narrowed my eyes and forced myself onwards. Come on Kit, this isn't hard. If you managed to survive a fierce attack from a poochyena, you can survive carrying a canoe.

I nodded to myself and trudged onwards, telling myself to ignore the stinging pain in my arm. I had to learn to be strong. If I were ever to become a vulpix again, I would need to start training, to learn how to battle and to defend myself, or else I would be only wasting this amazing ability I'd been gifted with. But I could never expect myself to train as a pokémon if I couldn't even make the same effort as a human.

My thoughts were cut off abruptly as I heard Kimi squeal, and then I was pulled to the ground as she dropped the canoe and I went with it. I landed in the mud with a thump, and turned to face her angrily.

'What's your problem!?' I demanded. I saw her back away, shaking her head in horror as her eyes stayed fixed on the canoe. I sighed, irritated, and pulled myself to my feet. 'What? What is it?'

'Th . . . there!' Kimi managed to say in between deep breaths, and reached a shaky arm out, pointing to the canoe. I sighed again and walked around to her side, bending over and looking inside the canoe. 'No, Kit! Look out!'

I just shook my head, unable to believe how paranoid she was. Curled up inside the canoe was a long creature with mauve and primrose scales. Her round head rested on its side, her eyes closed.

'Big deal,' I said. 'An ekans.'

'What do you _mean_, "big deal"!?' Kimi shrieked. 'They're poisonous! Not to mention slimy and scaly and . . . ohhhh!'

She shuddered, and I shook my head.

'Hey, Ekans,' I said. 'Wake up. You can't sleep here.'

I reached out a hand to nudge her awake, but someone grabbed my arm before I could touch her. I looked up angrily, and saw the camp instructor glaring down at me.

'Do you realise what you were about to do?' he demanded. '_Never_ touch a wild pokémon, _especially_ a poisonous one like an ekans. Poison may be easy to heal on a pokémon, but it's a different story altogether on a human. You could have been killed!'

'Yeah right,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Ekans won't attack unless you threaten them.'

'And that's exactly what you were doing, Miss Pokémon Expert!' the instructor growled.

'I was not!' I argued. 'I was just _asking_ it to move!'

'Oh, that's rich,' said the instructor, almost laughing. He turned to face the rest of the students. 'Did you hear that, boys and girls? This little expert here thinks she can communicate with pokémon!'

A few of the students laughed, and I felt myself go hot with anger. How dare he publically insult me like that, in front of all my classmates! Especially when he had no idea what he was talking about. What did he know about communicating with pokémon? What did anybody know about communicating with pokémon? Could he make sense of what they were saying? Could he hear their words? Of course not. All that he ever heard were them saying their names. A sound which I had almost completely forgotten now that I heard their words in my mind.

'Yeah, well maybe I _can_ communicate with pokémon!' I said defiantly, determined to regain my classmates' respect. But of course, to this I only received more laughs. I narrowed my eyes. I'd show them.

The camp instructor laughed. 'That's great, really. But don't you think you're a little old to pretend to be able to talk with pokémon?'

'You think I'm pretending?' I challenged, and leant back towards the canoe. 'Hey Ekans! Wake up!'

When the sleeping pokémon made no response, I reached my hand out towards her again. This time, the camp instructor was too busy laughing at me to stop me, and I managed to touch the ekans, nudging her gently.

'C'mon, wake up,' I urged her.

In one swift movement, the pokémon opened her eyes, dropped her jaw and barred her fans at me, her forked tongue lashing around as she lunged towards me.

I leapt to my feet and took a step back, narrowly managing to avoid her attack. She reared up, hissing at me violently.

'How dare you wake me from my sleep, ignorant human!' she hissed at me.

'What do you think you're doing!?' the camp instructor roared at me. 'You have no idea how to handle wild pokémon! Get out of the way!'

He pushed me aside and took a step towards the ekans, pulling off his jacket in order to use it to catch the pokémon. I clenched my hands into fists, digging my nails into palms as if to create the pain needed to release my anger. What did _he_ know about wild pokémon!? He was just a camp instructor, he wasn't even a park ranger! When would _he_ have ever talked to wild pokémon, truly empathised with them, been one of them?

'You're the one who doesn't know what you're doing!' I shouted, marching back over to the ekans. I bent down to her and did my best to put on a friendly face, which wasn't easy considering my mood. 'I'm sorry Ekans, I didn't mean to disturb you, I just wanted to get you out of there peacefully, honestly!'

'Will you shut up, you stupid kid!' the instructor yelled at me. 'For Pete's sake, it can't understand you! It's a pokémon!'

As his words sunk in, I took a step back. _It can't understand you! It's a pokémon!_ He was right. I may have been able to understand her, but how could Ekans possibly understand me? She was a wild pokémon, she hadn't had enough contact with humans to have learned what their words meant. Trying to explain myself to her was useless. I wasn't going to be any better at calming her down than the camp instructor was . . . if anything, I was going to be worse. I stepped back further, biting my lip. I'd just made a complete fool of myself . . . and for what? This camp was getting worse each day.

  
  


I sat with my chin in my hand, my elbow on my knee, and a frown on my face. The instructor had managed to catch Ekans and release her into the bush, but he'd been so angry with me after what I'd done, that he'd decided not to let me go canoeing. Kimi had joined up with two other girls in a three-person canoe, so I was left to sit by myself and watch them all from the shore. Although I was somewhat grateful that I didn't have to go canoeing after all, I was annoyed and embarrassed about why. My classmates were all going to think I was some kind of weirdo now, thanks to what I'd said and the fact that I hadn't been able to back it up. It had made me realise more than ever that I did need to keep my ability a secret. Not because I was scared of what might happen to me, like Eustacia had warned me, but because I knew that nobody would ever believe me, and that I would only become the laughing stock of the school. As if I didn't get enough of that from Taylor.

I must have been sitting there for at least half an hour when I first heard a noise in the bushes behind me. A kind of rustling sound, as if something was moving in the leaves. My heart skipped a beat. What if Ekans had come back? She hadn't seemed too happy with me for waking her up . . . what if she was out to pay me back? As much as the camp instructor had annoyed me, he'd been right. Poison was really hard to cure on humans, and if I got attacked by that ekans, I could be in real trouble.

I turned around cautiously, looking around at the undergrowth to see if I could spot any movement. I knew that there was _something_ there . . . but where? Just as I was about to give up and assume it had only been the wind, something caught my eye. A strange red zig-zagged band seemed to be floating in mid-air, unattached to anything, and it was . . . moving?

I blinked. OK Kit, _now_ you're losing it. Some crazy things have happened to you before, but seeing a shape floating around in the air? You _must_ be hallucinating. I rubbed my eyes, and blinked again . . . but no, it was still there.

I kept staring at the shape, slightly worried about my sanity, when finally the air around it began to take shape, and colours began to solidify, until they formed a small green lizard with the red band across its front. I blinked again. Had that thing just been invisible, or was I imagining things?

Then, I belatedly realised who I was looking at.

'Cam!' I exclaimed.

The kecleon took a cautious step back, and I stared. What was wrong with him? Why was he afraid of me? He knew who I was now . . . he knew I was that vulpix he had saved . . .. Then I realised what I was telling myself. Of course he knew it was me . . . that was what was _making_ him afraid! If I hadn't been the one to have it happen to me, I too would have been afraid of a human who could turn into a pokémon . . ..

'Hey . . .' I said softly, but it was hard to sound sympathetic. It felt so awful to have everyone afraid of or amused by me because of this. It was an amazing ability that should have felt exciting . . . so why did it feel liked I'd been outcast because of it? I sighed, and forced myself to be friendly. It wasn't Cam's fault he was scared. 'Don't be scared, Cam . . . I'm your friend, remember?'

Cam looked at me uncertainly, tilting his big head to the side and staring at me with his little black eyes. I bit my lip. He seemed so . . . animal-like. I'd met Cam when I'd been a vulpix, so since we'd both been pokémon, he had seemed human to me. Now that I was a human and he was a pokémon . . . we were so different . . . it was no wonder he seemed so foreign to me. And, by the looks of things, I seemed foreign to him, too.

'Cam,' I forced a smile. 'It's me, Kit . . . come here, you know I won't hurt you.'

I held my hand out to him, and he looked at it, then up at my face, then back at my hand. He paused, then walked towards me, and I put my hand on his head, comfortingly patting his soft green scales.

'See, Cam,' I said. 'I'm your friend.'

He looked up at me, his large mouth curved into a disappointed frown.

'I don't understand you,' he said. I opened my eyes wide, staring. Of course he was scared . . . he didn't even know what I was saying! I thought back to when I'd first turned back into a human and had tried to communicate with him . . . I'd been able to understand him, but he'd had no idea what my words meant. 'Do . . . do you understand me?'

'Yes,' I said, and nodded to make sure he understood. He sighed.

'I'm a wild pokémon,' he said. 'I've hardly had any contact with humans before . . . their language is gibberish to me.'

I sighed. That charmeleon had been right . . . how could humans and pokémon ever be friends, when they couldn't even understand each other's words? How could I really call Cam my friend when he didn't know what I was saying to him . . . when he was _afraid_ of me?

'Kit . . .' Cam said uncertainly, and I looked down at him. 'I don't belong here . . . I miss my home. Are you going back to the Genesis Bushland one day?'

I nodded. I was going back home in two days . . . I could go to the bush if that was what he wanted.

'I know this is a lot to ask, but can you take me back with you?' Cam asked, staring at the ground as if afraid to look at me.

'Yeah,' I nodded, and he looked up at me. 'Of course.'

'Thanks Kit,' he smiled. 'You're a great friend. I only wish I knew what you were saying.'

'Kit!' a voice called out suddenly, and Cam looked up, startled, then turned and dived into the bushes.

'Cam wait!' I exclaimed, then sighed and turned around. Kimi was approaching me, dripping wet and pulling her life jacket off.

'What's gotten into you!?' she exclaimed. 'You never seemed to care about pokémon before but you were full letting that wild kecleon come near you just then! What if it's diseased or something!?'

I narrowed my eyes. 'Maybe you're diseased in the head. There's nothing wrong with Cam!'

'With what?' Kimi asked, giving me a strange look. 'Oh my gosh, don't tell me you gave it a name.'

I put my hand to my forehead and looked down, embarrassed. I couldn't believe I'd just used Cam's name! I sure wasn't doing a good job of keeping my secret.

'You're getting weird, Kit,' said Kimi, sounding almost worried. 'You were so engrossed in that pokémon you didn't even noticed when I fell into the river!'

'You fell in?' I asked, and realised that her clothes were plastered against her, her dark hair was messy and dripping all over her shoulders. I had to try hard not to laugh.

'That weirdo Jessica thought it'd be _fun_ to capsize the canoe!' said Kimi. 'Can you believe it!? _Fun_!? I'm gonna get pneumonia now! Oh, this is so awful! Look at my hair! I can't even wash it until I get home, either!'

'Oh no, it's the end of the world,' I muttered. This girl had to get her priorities straight. Cam had run off scared while I was supposed to be figuring out how to get him home . . . and she was worried about her hair!? I sighed angrily and got up, turning to where Cam had run. I walked towards the bushes, looking around for some sign of him.

'Kit, what are you doing!?' Kimi exclaimed as I bent down and pushed some plants aside, peering into the bushes. 'Those plants could be poisonous!'

'Yeah right,' I said. I was no botany expert, but I was pretty sure that grass and shrubs weren't poisonous. 'Cam . . . you there Cam?'

'Kit, stop it!' said Kimi. 'You're acting so weird . . . you're starting to scare me. Just get back here, we're meant to be packing up now anyway.'

'Then you go pack up,' I said. 'I've got more important things to worry about.'

I heard movement in the bushes a bit further off, and looked up. I nodded to myself and walked to where the sound had come from, climbing over some rocks and small plants. I heard Kimi call out to me, but ignored her. She didn't understand . . . how could any human understand?

'Cam?' I asked, as I saw movement in the bushes and edged towards it. 'It's OK, it's me, Kit.'

'So it is!' snarled a voice, and I took a step back, shocked. That wasn't Cam's voice. It was too rough, too nasty . . . and not only that, the words were so clear, so defined . . . as if it were a human voice.

Before I had a chance to think about who the voice could belong to, something leapt up out of the bushes, jumping right at me. I cried out and stumbled back, just in time to escape with a few scratches on my face and arms. Shocked, I looked down . . . and saw the creature that had attacked me. It was that charmeleon from the other night!

'What do _you_ want!?' I demanded, ignoring the voice of Kimi shrieking that I was being attacked.

'I think you know exactly what I want,' snarled the charmeleon, as he put his paws on his hips.

'Here's some news for you: no I _don't_ know what you want!' I said. 'That's why I asked you, you moron!'

'Then you're just as clueless as the rest of your kind,' spat the charmeleon.

I was about to reply to that, when the camp instructor and a few students came running up behind me.

'I've had it up to here with you!' shouted the instructor. 'I told you to stay away from wild pokémon! Now you've gotten it angry!'

'Your whole species makes me angry just at the thought of you,' said the charmeleon. There was a collective gasp behind me.

'It talked!' someone exclaimed. I spun around, shocked.

'What do you mean it talked?' I asked.

'Didn't you hear it?' one of the boys asked, shaking his head in horror. 'It spoke!'

'Pokémon aren't as stupid as you humans think,' said the charmeleon, and I gasped, realising belatedly what was going on here. That charmeleon wasn't speaking its own language - it was speaking English! So I wasn't the only one who understood it after all . . ..

'Oh my gosh, how does it do that!?' someone else exclaimed. I narrowed my eyes, glaring at the charmeleon. I wasn't shocked about a pokémon being able to speak English - weirder things had happened to me - I was just determined to find out what he wanted with me.

'You humans treat us pokémon so lowly,' said the charmeleon. 'Thinking you're so great the way you enslave us and make us fight your battles. But you're nothing compared to us. Look at me - I'm no fool, I can speak your language. But when have you ever heard of a human speaking - even _trying_ to speak - our language? Never. You're all too stupid!'

'That's what you think!' I said angrily. I was going to go on and tell him that I had the ability to understand pokémon, even though I knew I shouldn't be telling anyone . . . so it was lucky that at that moment, two figures came towards us through the bush, calling out.

'Leon!' a deep male voice called, and I was sure I'd heard it somewhere before. 'Leon! Where are you?'

The charmeleon snarled, but I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. I had my eyes on the two figures that were approaching us. They were humans, a man and a woman, and they were dressed in unusual outfits. Apart from the man wearing trousers and the woman wearing a skirt, their clothes were the same. Grey boots with red shin guards; red gloves, and red hoods which covered their heads and chests. Attached to these hoods were horn-shaped decorations, and masking their eyes were dark visors. Their clothing hid their features - all I could make out was the woman's dark blue hair that hung down from her hood. But perhaps the most notable part of their clothing was the dark "M" design which they wore on their chests. I knew I recognised that symbol . . ..

'Come on Adrian, this is pointless,' the woman said. 'You know Leon never listens to us. Let's just head back to camp, he'll come back eventually.'

'Oh my goodness,' breathed the instructor, as the figures came closer. 'What on Earth are they doing here!? Kids, head back to your tents! Now!'

The students looked at each other in confusion, but no one made any attempt to obey him.

'What is it?' Kimi asked, her voice shaking. 'Kit, come on, we'd better go.'

'No way,' I said. I had just realised where I recognised those two humans from. 'I've got a score to settle.'

'What!?' Kimi exclaimed.

'Don't be such a fool!' the instructor yelled. 'Get back here right now, young lady!'

'Yeah right,' I muttered, then raised my voice. 'I'm right here, Team Magma! Come down here and tell me what you want instead of hiding like cowards!'


	9. Chapter 8: Colour Change

Sorry about the wait, though by now I guess you're all used to the fact that I take forever to update.   
There is now a small _Pilot Light_ site up (the URL is the homepage on my profile). I primarily put it together for those of you who aren't members of The Vulpix Club to be able to look at the pictures, but there are a few other little things on the site too, so take a look at it and tell me what you think.   
Oh, and a question of my own about the story. Since Kit can understand pokémon speech, when pokémon speak their words are written in English rather than their own languages (i.e. "Vulpix vul!"). However I've noticed that this can make things a bit confusing since it doesn't differentiate it from human speech, so it's hard to tell whether a pokémon is speaking in English or in its own language unless it's actually stated. Leon speaks in English whereas Cam and all the other pokémon characters (including Kit when she's a vulpix) speak in their own languages. Anyway I was just wondering if this is easy enough to follow, or if you'd prefer me to differentiate them more (by putting pokémon speech in italics and human speech in regular text, or something like that). And if you have any other suggestions on how the story can be improved, I'd love to hear those too! 

**Chapter Eight - Colour Change**

  
  


'It's her!'

The two Team Magma agents saw me, and came running through the bushes, dodging the rocks and trees until they reached me.

'Leon!' the man - who I'd gathered was called Adrian - looked at the charmeleon in shock. I blinked. So this charmeleon was the "Leon" they'd been talking about? That meant that he wasn't a wild pokémon after all . . . he was part of Team Magma! So . . . that time when he'd attacked Cam, and then the Team Magma agents had shown up . . . that hadn't just been a coincidence. But Team Magma . . . I knew it was a band of criminals, but there was something more than that . . . someone had told me something about it but I couldn't remember what . . .. All I knew was that these two were the only humans who knew about my transformation into a vulpix . . . and I had to make sure that no one else was going to find out.

'All right!' Adrian said determinedly as he took out a pokéball. 'Hand over the Sacred Ash and things won't get messy!'

I narrowed my eyes, starting at him in confusion. What was this guy talking about? "Sacred Ash"? Was he confusing me with someone else? Surely he remembered that I was the girl who had become a vulpix, not someone who had whatever this "Sacred Ash" thing was.

'Shut your mouth!' Leon snarled back at Adrian. 'I told you, this has nothing to do with the bird!'

The bird?

'Look, I don't know what you people are talking about, but if you don't leave this park this instant, I'm calling the cops!' the instructor yelled, and took out his mobile phone as if to strengthen the threat.

'You think you scare us?' Adrian asked, a cocky grin on his face. 'Who says we're even doing anything wrong here?'

'I know who you are, you're from Team Magma!' the instructor accused.

'Team Magma!?' a few of the students exclaimed. The instructor turned to them angrily.

'I told you to go back to your tents!' he hissed. 'Go!'

'Oh come on,' I said, shaking my head. 'You really think that making them hide is gonna make 'em calm? It's better they see what's going on so they know what to look out for.'

'I've had enough of you!' the instructor yelled. 'If you talk back to me one more time you're getting sent home!'

'That'd be better than staying here and listening to you go on your little hypocritical power trip,' I said.

'Tough words for such a low level pokémon,' Adrian cut in before the instructor could respond. I narrowed my eyes and turned to the Team Magma members.

'What was that?' I demanded coldly. Kit, stop it . . . if you get defensive about your battle skills, people will find out about your transformation, and that's the last thing you want to happen. They'll laugh at you, they'll mock you, call you a freak . . . or worse, they'll take you away, lock you up somewhere and run tests on you . . .. I shook my head. I wasn't going to let that happen.

'That was the easiest battle I've ever seen Poochyena fight,' said Adrian. 'If that jerk with the poliwrath hadn't shown up you'd be in our lab right now being studied.'

I ground my teeth. I wanted to yell at him, tell him that I might not have been the strongest fighter in the world but at least I battled for myself, at least I didn't capture innocent creatures and make them fight for me because I was too weak to fight my own battles. But I forced myself not to say it. There was no way I could let all these people find out, no way . . ..

'What battle?' I asked, and hoped I was convincing enough. 'The only poochyena I've ever fought was the one I used to live next door to that kept stealing the mail.'

'Don't play dumb!' the female Team Magma member finally spoke up, sounding impatient. 'We know you're that vulpix girl, so don't even try to deny it!'

'Vulpix?' I asked. 'I've never even seen a vulpix in my whole life. Everyone knows vulpixes aren't native to Aruto.'

The woman ground her teeth. 'Stop it! We know who you are!'

'And who might that be?' I asked smugly.

'You're the girl who turned into a vulpix!' the woman snapped. There was a pause, then the majority of the students started laughing. I grinned. That was exactly the reaction I'd wanted.

'That's got to be the stupidest thing I've heard all day,' I said. 'A girl who turned into a vulpix? Oh please! You've been watching too many cartoons.'

Leon growled. 'Stop talking! Let's just fight her! That way she'll have to change to defend herself, _and_ she'll be pathetically weak as a vulpix!'

'Good idea, Leon,' the woman said as she took out her pokéball.

'Quiet!' Leon snarled. 'I don't need compliments from you stupid humans, and I certainly don't need help from your pathetic trained pokémon! I fight alone!'

'Kit, get back here!' Kimi cried, but I just smiled. There was no way these guys were going to make me become a vulpix. It had been months in between my first and second transformation - the third wasn't going to happen in just a couple of days! And I didn't care if these guys attacked me. I wasn't scared of getting hurt. And if they did hurt me, they'd probably get arrested, and I'd never have to worry about them again. It was perfect!

Leon stepped forward, his claws outstretched.

'Hang on Leon, we can't just attack a human . . .' Adrian said uncertainly.

'I told you to be quiet!' Leon snapped, and with that he leapt at me. I gasped and tried to block him, but it was no use - he knocked me down onto my back, and even in the heat of the moment I was surprised at his force and weight. I tried to throw him off me, but he held his weight firmly on my body. He threw his arms down and sliced his claws down my face. I cried out in pain as the sharp blades pierced my skin and cut down my cheeks . . . I could almost taste the blood as it seeped out and down my face. I instinctively put my hands to my face to hold my wounds, not worrying about what the charmeleon would do next.

'Kit!' I heard Kimi - and some of the other students - cry out. The camp instructor swore and I heard him call for help on his mobile phone. I narrowed my eyes. Yeah don't try and help me yourself or anything, you stupid wimp.

'Are you gonna change now or would you like another Slash attack?' Leon snarled. I pulled my hands away from my face, glaring up at him. He glared back and raised his bloody claws for another swipe. I cringed, shutting my eyes tightly as I braced myself for the pain.

Kit, what are you doing? You can't just lie there and let him attack you! You have to fight back! . . . But how could I fight back as a human? Humans weren't built for fighting, pokémon were. But I couldn't become a pokémon, not now, not in front of everyone . . . and even if I had wanted to, I didn't even know how to trigger my transformation. I had to fight back as I was. I couldn't let myself get beaten up by these guys, especially not in front of all my classmates. I'd wanted to be able to use this camp to prove my strength, but so far all I'd done was show everyone how weak I was.

I threw my arms up and caught Leon's hands in mine, pushing them up and back away from my face, forcing myself to ignore the pain of my newly opened wounds. The charmeleon growled and threw my arms down, freeing his. He swiftly swiped at me again, but I rolled over and managed to dodge his attack and crawl out from under him at the same time. I got to my feet, but by that stage he was ready, and spat a ball of flames at me. I opened my eyes wide as it flew towards me. Not that, anything but that! Not the fire . . ..

It was too late. The flames hit me in the chest and triggered something inside of me, and I felt my own fire heating up in my body. Go away. Go away! I _can't_ become a vulpix, not now! But as the Ember attack faded, the heat only got stronger . . . I could feel the flames in my heart running through my whole body, sparking off the fire that I knew would engulf me and change my body . . . in front of everyone. No! Stop! It has to stop!

My mind flashed back to the first time I had become a vulpix. I saw Ho-Oh in the sky . . . fighting, trying its hardest, but unable to combat the rain . . . I saw the world turn black around me, and the great bird burnt itself into a pile of ash and was gone. Gone. Had it been my fault? Had there been something I could have done to stop it? I reached for the ash. Ho-Oh, I'm sorry . . . I'm so sorry that you're gone . . . is there anything I can do to make you forgive me? Is there anything I can do to redeem myself? I didn't mean to hurt you, I didn't mean to destroy you, I . . . I only wanted to help. I promise, I only wanted to help you. Please don't curse me like this, please . . . please.

For a moment I thought I felt something in my hand . . . something small, hard, with a cold surface but a glowing warmth from the inside. Then I opened my eyes and looked, and it was gone.

'Poliwrath! Water gun now!'

Startled, I turned around to see the park ranger who had apparently saved me from Team Magma the first time. In front of him was a large navy blue pokémon with short arms and legs attached to a round body. The poliwrath narrowed his eyes and shot a torrent of water from the centre of the spiral on his stomach. My head told me to leap out of the way, but some sixth sense told me to stay right where I was, and I did. The gush of water hit me in the chest, and I was thrown back by the force, landing on my back with a thump. I felt the water seep through my clothes and touch my body, and for a moment it stung, but then it cooled me . . . I felt the flames in my body die out, and I was back to normal. I hadn't transformed. I breathed a sigh of relief. Exhausted, I stayed lying where I was and turned my head to see Poliwrath drenching Leon with water.

'Poochyena!' Adrian called, tossing his pokéball and releasing his canine pokémon. 'Poochyena, tackle that poliwrath!'

'My pleasure!' Poochyena grinned as she leapt at Poliwarth, knocking the larger pokémon back and causing his water gun to fail. Leon snarled and shook his head, but I could see that the water gun had severely weakened him.

'Rose, help us out here!' Adrian said desperately, before ordering his pokémon to use Tackle again. The woman - whose name I finally figured out was Rose - shrugged and opened her pokéball. Numel appeared. I blinked. Did these guys only have one pokémon each?

'I said I don't need your help!' Leon snapped. Numel stared at him as he lowered his head and charged at me. I opened my eyes wide, staring as the furious charmeleon ran at me. I barely even registered what was happening until he was almost upon me, and I quickly rolled out of the way. As I went to get to my feet, I felt something thump into the back of my legs, and I tripped and fell flat on my face. I turned my head to see Leon flick his tail back to him, clawing his feet firmly into the ground. I glared at him and forced myself to my feet.

'What're you trying to prove by attacking me?' I asked bitterly. 'That you're stronger than a human? Aren't you the one who keeps going on about how weak humans are? It can't be any big achievement to beat one.'

'Quiet!' he snapped. 'You're no human and you know it!'

I laughed. 'Don't be so ridiculous. If I'm not a human then what am I?'

'I don't know what you are,' he snarled. 'But you'll pay for believing a human and a pokémon are interchangeable.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked.

He growled. 'Just shut up!'

With that, he launched himself into the air, his arms outstretched and ready to swipe at me with his claws again. I threw my arms up to defend myself, then I heard Leon cry out, and a thump as he fell back.

'What the!?' Rose exclaimed. 'That thing again!?'

I lowered my arms and looked down to see what had happened . . . and gasped. Standing in front of me was a short green lizard, his eyes narrow, his arms held in a battle stance, ready to fight.

'It's OK Kit,' he said. 'I can beat him.'

'Cam!' I exclaimed. 'But you . . . this guy really hurt you last time! You can't fight him!'

Cam glanced at me uncertainly, then turned his attention back to where Leon was getting to his feet, snarling. I stared at Cam for a moment, before remembering that he couldn't understand human speech. I sighed. So nothing I said would have any effect on him . . . how could I tell him he was in danger when he couldn't understand me? I couldn't just let him get himself hurt! But what was there for me to do?

'Numel, take care of that thing,' said Rose. 'We don't want it getting in the way.'

'Yeah yeah,' mumbled Numel, and plodded unenthusiastically towards Cam.

'Stay out of this!' Leon snapped. 'I don't need your stupid trained pokémon! I've beaten this kecleon before and I can do it again!'

Numel shrugged and sat down where he was. Rose clenched her hands into fists and ground her teeth, glaring at Leon . . . but she didn't say anything else.

'What interest do you have in helping this stupid girl anyway?' Leon snarled at Cam.

'Kit's my friend,' said Cam. 'We look out for each other.'

I couldn't help smiling. Even though he couldn't understand my words, Cam still saw me as his friend. We hardly knew each other, but friendship didn't always worry about things like that. Words weren't important, it was the unspoken understandings that really mattered.

'Then you're a pathetic excuse for a pokémon,' Leon narrowed his eyes at Cam. 'Any pokémon who associates with non-pokémon is just as disgusting as the humans who use them.'

'That's not true,' said Cam. 'I used to be afraid of humans, but Kit showed me that humans and pokémon aren't really all that different, and there's no reason for us not to be friends.'

'Rubbish!' Leon snapped. 'I'm not gonna stand here and listen to that tripe!'

He ran at Cam, throwing his arms out and knocking the kecleon onto his back, swiping his claws down Cam's face.

'No!' I exclaimed, as I watched Cam cringe in pain. 'Leave him alone!'

'You're next!' Leon snarled up at me before turning his attention back to Cam. I swallowed. I had to do something. Myself being attacked was one thing, but I couldn't stand there and watch my friend get beaten up . . . especially not after what I'd seen happen to him last time. I swallowed. But what could I do?

Cam winced, and forced his own arms up, scratching Leon with his much smaller claws. The charmeleon just laughed.

'What was that supposed to be?' he asked. 'A Scratch attack? Not even strong enough to use Slash, huh?'

Cam narrowed his eyes. 'I don't need powerful attacks, I'll win with what I've got!'

I admired his spirit, but I knew that spirit wasn't enough. You could be the most confident person in the world but it wouldn't mean anything in a fight if you weren't strong. Cam was too kind to be a strong fighter. He may have been a pokémon, but he wasn't into battling like the others. He was a friend, not a warrior. And I knew that he wasn't strong enough to beat Leon on his own, no matter how determined he was.

I looked over at the park ranger's poliwrath hopefully. He was still battling Poochyena. Adrian's pokémon was getting considerably weak, but she was still fighting . . . I couldn't rely on Poliwrath's help to save Cam. I was the only one who could help.

But what could I do? I couldn't transform into a vulpix to save him, not in front of all these people . . . or could I? What was more important; me keeping a secret, or my friend's safety? Surely it wouldn't cause all _that_ much commotion . . . Adrian and Rose _had_ already said that I could become a vulpix . . . but no, none of them had believed it, and even if they had, actually seeing it happen would still be a huge shock to them. It was shock enough to me, I couldn't imagine how unbelievable it would be to someone who hadn't actually experienced it themselves . . ..

But did it really matter? Surely saving Cam was more important? If everyone knew about me becoming a vulpix, I'd regret it because of how differently everyone would see me . . . but wouldn't I regret it even more if I stopped myself from doing it and ended up being unable to help Cam? Then it wouldn't be about regret, it would be about guilt, and that was an even worse feeling . . . I shook my head, remembering Ho-Oh. I'd let the great bird down, and now I was going to let my friend down too?

'See how you like _this_, you pathetic excuse for a pokémon!' Leon growled as he opened his mouth and spat a ball of flames at Cam. The kecleon cried out in pain as the fire hit him straight in the face and engulfed his body.

'Cam!' I cried out, staring in horror as my friend tried to shake off the flames. Leon grinned darkly as the fire began to disperse but Cam continued to shake in the pain of the burns. I swallowed. I had to do something. I had to do something. Cam was hurt! I stepped forward without being entirely sure about what I was going to do, just knowing that I couldn't stand there and watch anymore.

'Stay back!'

I turned to see the park ranger glaring at me seriously. I glanced down to notice that Poochyena was nowhere to be seen - Adrian must have recalled her to her pokéball. Poliwrath stood proudly as his master called out to me.

'That's a kecleon!' he said. 'Stay back!'

'What!?' I exclaimed, staring at him. What did he mean, "that's a kecleon"? What was so awful about kecleons? Didn't he realise that Cam was my friend?

'It's a kecleon!' he repeated. 'You've got to be careful of its Colour Change ability!'

I blinked. Colour Change ability? That didn't sound so awful. I knew that kecleons could turn invisible - Cam had shown me that only ten minutes ago - but changing colour? That sounded even less intimidating. What was so awful about it?

I looked down at Cam, and my eyes opened wide with shock.

The kecleon's soft green scales had turned a burning scarlet, but that wasn't all. His eyes were dark and narrow, his teeth clenched as he snarled, and his short claws were stretched out in a menacing attack pose. I took a step back in shock. He looked terrifying! Was this really my calm, peaceable friend? What had happened to Cam!?

'You'll regret messing with my friend,' he snarled coldly at Leon, and I could hardly recognise his voice anymore.

'A kecleon's Colour Change ability makes it change its type into the type of the attack that last hit it,' explained the park ranger, his eyes fixed on Cam. 'But there can be side effects.'

'Side effects!?' I exclaimed. 'But . . . but Cam!'

I stared at my friend in horror. This wasn't Cam, this was someone else . . . I hadn't wanted him to get hurt but I hadn't wanted this to happen either . . . if this was the price he had to pay for his safety, was it even worth it? I should have defended him myself, I shouldn't have left him to fight a stronger opponent . . . and now I was going to have to live with the mistake I'd made. My friend wasn't saved at all . . . he'd become someone else.


	10. Chapter 9: The Capture

For this chapter, I've put pokémon speech in italics and human speech in regular text, so that you can tell the difference (since Kit understands pokémon speech, both are written in English). I'm not sure if this makes it less confusing or more confusing - so if you could tell me what you think that'd be great, and I'll decide whether to do it this way permanently or not. I'm probably making it into more of a deal than it really is - all you really need to remember is that Leon speaks in human speech but all the other pokémon speak in pokémon speech, but I'm just paranoid that I don't make it clear enough. *Shrugs.* 

**Chapter Nine - The Capture**

  
  


Cam leapt at Leon, arms outstretched, and knocked the charmeleon flat on his face. He swiped at him repeatedly with his claws, cutting through the hard scales and drawing blood.

All I could do was stand there as I shook my head in horror, tears in my eyes. This wasn't Cam . . . this couldn't be Cam! How could he ever be so vicious, so violent? How could Cam, the one who had saved me, the one who had always defended me, suddenly become a snarling, furious fighting machine?

'Leon!' Adrian exclaimed, looking just as horrified as he watched his teammate cry out in pain, unable to defend himself against the raging kecleon. He turned to Rose. 'You've gotta help him!'

'Help Leon?' Rose asked, almost laughing. 'As if he'd ever return the favour!'

'It doesn't matter!' Adrian exclaimed. 'We can't let him get hurt like this! Come on, Rose! With Poochyena fainted, Numel's our only chance!'

Rose sighed, irritated, and looked down at her nonchalant pokémon. He yawned, rubbed his eyes with a stubby paw, and stared blankly ahead, oblivious to the fight that was going on in front of him.

'Numel!' Rose yelled. Startled, her pokémon looked up, darting his head around in confusion. 'Numel, get up!'

_'But why?'_ Numel moaned, but did as he was told, getting to his feet.

'I'm warning you . . .' said the park ranger. 'If you start another fight, Poliwrath will knock that numel out in one hit, and you know it. We don't want people like you in this park, so take your charmeleon and go!'

Leon narrowed his eyes, snarling. 'I'm _not_ their pokémon! I am owned by _no one_!'

With that, he kicked Cam off him and pulled himself to his feet. But by the time he had stood up, Cam was charging back at him, and simply knocked him down again.

_'You'll pay!'_ he growled at Leon, swiping his claws at him. _'You'll pay for hurting my friend!'_

'Cam, stop!' I cried. 'You don't have to defend me like this, please just stop! You'll get hurt!'

'Kit, what on Earth are you talking about!?' Kimi exclaimed.

'She thinks the kecleon's fighting to defend her!' one of the boys said, and his friends roared with laughter.

I narrowed my eyes. Now wasn't the time to worry about what they thought. Cam had to stop fighting, he had to avoid being hurt, he had to . . . he had to return to normal. I bit my lip. Cam . . . what's happened to you?

'Numel!' Rose yelled. 'Knock that stupid kecleon out! If it's changed to a fire-type you should have no problem! Use Dig!'

_'But that move is so tricky,'_ whined Numel.

'Numel, come on, please,' begged Adrian. 'You don't want to see Leon get hurt, do you?'

Numel glanced over at where Cam was still swiping at Leon. He blinked a few times, then shrugged.

'Numel!' Rose yelled. 'I gave you an order, now do it! Unless you want to take another swim in the pool!'

Numel opened his eyes wide in shock, and shook his head rapidly.

_'I'll do it, I'll do it!'_ he cried, and obediently began digging his way underground.

'That's it!' the ranger yelled. 'I told you what would happen! Poliwrath, Water Gun!'

His pokémon shot a burst of water from the spiral on its stomach, but by this time, Numel had managed to burrow underground, and evaded the attack. However, some of the water hit Cam, and he cried out in pain.

'Cam!' I exclaimed, watching in horror as Leon took the opportunity to flip Cam onto his back. He was just about to swipe at him when Numel suddenly burst up from underneath the two lizards and sent them both flying. They landed several metres away from each other, covered in dirt, fainted.

'Cam!' I cried, and ran over to my friend. I got down on my knees and pulled him into my arms. 'Cam! Cam, say something!'

His body was motionless. I stared down at him, feeling tears run down my face. Cam, please, please be all right . . . if anything happens to you . . . if you don't recover or if you do but you're not yourself anymore . . . it'll be all my fault . . . I'll never be able to forgive myself. I've let you down, Cam . . . I've let Ho-Oh down and I've let you down . . . I'm no good to anyone . . ..

'Say goodbye to your little friend!'

I had barely registered the voice when I felt a small bump as something flew at Cam and hit him in the side. Before I knew it, he was disappearing before my eyes, dematerialising into a faint red light . . . and then he was gone. I stared at the empty space in my arms before turning to see Rose bend down and pick up a pokéball.

'Pretty good catch, don't you think?' she grinned mockingly. 'Kecleons are an endangered species, this one'll fetch an excellent price.'

No.

I stared at her in horror. No! She . . . she had _captured_ Cam!? I shook my head. How could she . . . how could she . . . he wasn't just any wild pokémon, he was my friend! She couldn't capture him, no one could capture him, they couldn't! Not Cam!

'Give him back!' I yelled, getting to my feet. 'Let him go!'

Rose laughed. 'Sure, I'll let him go.' She held the pokéball out towards me. I glared at her, unconvinced. She smiled as she pulled the pokéball back. 'We'll let your friend go if you agree to come with us.'

'Yeah right, like I'm gonna fall for that!' I narrowed my eyes at her.

'I mean it,' said Rose. 'Sure, a kecleon can fetch a good price, but that's nothing compared to what we'll get for bringing _you_ back to our boss.'

'I'm not that stupid,' I said defiantly. 'You'll never take me.'

'You'd give up you friend to save yourself?' Adrian asked, shaking his head. 'Some friend you are.'

I took a step back in shock. Was that what I was doing? By refusing to give myself up to them, was I just being selfish? But . . . but that couldn't be it! What they'd do to Cam would be nothing compared to what they'd do to me. They would sell Cam, but me . . . they'd conduct experiments on me, they'd be so cruel to me, they'd make me into some kind of freak show . . ..

But if I were a real friend, would that have mattered? If I were a real friend, wouldn't I put myself through anything to save Cam? Wouldn't I?

'Well, tough luck,' said Rose, holding out Numel's pokéball and recalling him. She put both full pokéballs on her belt.

'Catching pokémon in the National Park is illegal,' the ranger said warningly. 'All the pokémon here are protected and catching them can result in big fines and even prison sentences! Release that kecleon before I call the police!'

'I told you the deal,' said Rose. She gestured to me. 'The girl comes with us, I release the kecleon.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' said the ranger. 'She's of no value to you.'

'If that's what you want to believe, then go ahead,' said Rose. 'C'mon vulpix girl, this is your last chance. Are you coming or not?'

I swallowed. I could say yes and hope that the ranger would call the police and get them to release me. But I didn't know if even the police could combat a gang like Team Magma and besides, I had no idea if they really would release Cam. But if I just stood here and did nothing . . . I'd let him down again. I was always letting Cam down. And this time . . . what if this time, I never saw him again?

'Time's up, we're outta here,' said Rose. I looked up at her hurriedly, still wondering whether to just give in to her, when I became aware of a buzzing sound overhead. The sound became louder and louder until the plants around us began to shake violently as a harsh wind blew through. A few seconds later, a helicopter appeared in the sky above. A thin rope ladder was thrown down in between the two Magma agents. Adrian bent over and picked up Leon, hauling the unconscious charmeleon into his arms, then took a hold on the ladder.

'Say goodbye to your friend,' grinned Rose, as she too grabbed onto the ladder.

'Wait!' I exclaimed, as the ladder swung and rose into the air, the helicopter turning around. 'Wait, give him back! Please! Give him back!'

'Too late, little girl!' I could hardly hear Rose's voice over the whirring helicopter. 'Now you'll never see your friend again!'

A few seconds later, the helicopter had disappeared from my vision. I stared after it for a few seconds before the energy vanished from my body, and I collapsed onto the ground. I've failed. I've failed as a friend. I've failed as a human.

  
  


The activities were called off that night. Due to the presence of Team Magma in the National Park, our camp was to be cut short and we were to return home the following morning. I had wanted to yell at the camp instructors, to tell them that staying for the night was stupid and that we should go home now . . . and more importantly, that I'd seen Team Magma earlier but they'd done nothing about it, they'd left it too late, left it until my friend had had to suffer . . . I had wanted to tell them all that and more, but I hadn't. I'd known that taking out my anger wouldn't make me feel better, because it wasn't their fault, it was mine.

I glanced around in the darkness at the shapes that were Amanda, Kimi and Natasha. They were fast asleep. How could they be so calm, so peaceful? How could they just lie there and sleep while Cam was out there in the hands of some evil gang, in the middle of nowhere, with no one he knew, no familiar faces . . . not even familiar with himself, but that ferocious creature that he had turned into. How could they sleep?

It was simple . . . they didn't know Cam. They didn't care about Cam, to them he was just a wild pokémon, just an unknown creature . . . and because they didn't know him, because they didn't understand, they didn't see him as a person. Whether he was human or not made no difference. Because they didn't know him, he wasn't a person. He didn't matter.

But he mattered to me. And in this unfamiliar park, maybe I was to only one he mattered to. So I was the only one who could do anything about it. I didn't know if Cam was even still in the park, but lying there doing nothing wasn't going to help me find out.

I crawled out of the tent into the cold night. I didn't bother to take anything with me, not even a torch. Maybe it was because I'd been awake for hours in the darkness so my eyes had adjusted, but navigating at night didn't seem like a big problem anymore. Without even registering what I was doing, I went straight over to the rangers' cabin and peered in the kitchen window.

'Tom!' I hissed quietly. 'Tom, are you there?'

I wasn't sure why I was seeking out the rangers' meowth for help. Perhaps it was because he had helped me with Cam before. But I felt that I needed help, and that Tom was the only one who could give it to me.

'Tom!' I repeated desperately. 'Tom!'

_'Now it's not every day a human comes looking for me in the middle of the night.'_

Startled, I turned around to see the meowth plodding up the stairs to the cabin and approaching me. I smiled, and turned away from the window, bending down to Tom.

_'Now tell me how you know my name and why you're looking for me,'_ he said. _'If you're up to no good let me know so I can join in.'_

'I'm not up to no good, I need your help,' I said.

_'Now, there's something I've never seen before,'_ said Tom. _'A human who understands my words.'_

'Well it's not every day I find a pokémon who understands mine either,' I said.

_'When you've been around humans as long as I have, you pick these things up,'_ said Tom. _'Now, are you going to tell me who you are?'_

I bit my lip. Explaining that I was that vulpix he had helped out would be too difficult, and I couldn't waste any time trying to make him believe me.

'Do you remember that vulpix you helped out?' I asked. 'You gave her some medicine.'

_'Of course,'_ said Tom. _'Kit.'_

'Well, I'm a friend of her,' I said. 'My name's . . . um . . ..' I decided to just go with my full name rather than making one up, in case I forgot it. 'Katherine.'

_'I see,'_ said Tom. _'And what did you need my help for, Katherine?'_

'Well, it's my- um, _our_ friend,' I said. 'I- I mean, Kit managed to heal him, but then he got . . ..' I took a deep breath. It was hard enough to think about, let alone talk about. 'He got captured by these Team Magma agents, and I _need_ to find him. I have to leave tomorrow morning, but I can't leave without him, I _can't_!'

_'And are these "Team Magma agents" still here?'_ Tom asked.

'I don't know,' I said. 'That's where I was hoping you'd help. You must know this park better than anyone, right?'

_'You want me to help search the park?'_ Tom asked.

'Do you think you could?' I begged. 'I know this place is big, but if we split up-'

_'Don't be so absurd, one meowth and one human could never search the entire park before morning,'_ said Tom.

'Please!' I begged. 'We've got to at least try! I can't leave him here, I-'

_'Let me finish,'_ Tom cut in. _'One meowth and one human couldn't search this park, but a few murkrows could easily.'_

'You . . . you know some murkrows who can help me!?' I exclaimed.

_'Of course,'_ nodded Tom. _'I know a lot of meowths don't get along with bird pokémon, but they're such friendly creatures if you only get to know them.'_

'That's so great!' I smiled.

Tom nodded. _'I'll see what I can do.'_

  
  


Tom found a family of five murkrows to help us. While they flew around the park looking for some sign of Team Magma, Tom and I split up to search on ground level. We'd only been looking for around twenty minutes when one of the murkrows flew to me, carrying Tom in his claws. He told me that he'd found two humans and a charmeleon sleeping in a small clearing. That was them! The murkrow led Tom and me to the clearing as fast as we could run.

Sure enough, two figures lay in sleeping bags, with a charmeleon beside them. All three were fast asleep. I looked around frantically for some sign of Cam, and spotted a pile of about eight pokéballs. One of them must have been the one Cam had been caught in . . . but which one? There was only one way to find out. I stepped into the clearing.

_'Katherine!'_ Tom hissed, and I turned to face him. _'Not so fast, you might wake them! And look.'_ He gestured to where another figure who I hadn't noticed was sitting near the pokéballs. A small creature with a rounded body, four stumpy legs and a long neck . . . Numel. His eyes were drooping, but he was awake. I hesitated.

_'He must be on guard duty,'_ said Tom. _'If he sees us he might wake the humans up.'_

'I dunno . . .' I said uncertainly, thinking about what I'd seen of Numel so far. 'I think we might be able to talk our way around with this one.'

_'Are you sure?'_ Tom asked.

'No, but I think it's worth a try,' I said. 'He's not exactly the brightest pokémon in the world. We might be able to trick him.'

_'Well . . . all right, but we have to be careful,'_ said Tom. _'I know a few attacks but I don't think I'd stand a chance against that charmeleon.'_

'The charmeleon was in a pretty big battle today, he must be weak anyway,' I said. 'But it doesn't matter, we've got to get Cam back.'

Tom nodded. _'All right. Let's try talking to the pokémon, but we must be quiet.'_

We carefully snuck past Adrian, Rose and Leon . . . as I glanced at Leon I couldn't help noticing that he looked a lot healthier than I'd expected . . . but it didn't matter, because I was sure that we could get through this without having to get into a fight. We approached Numel, and he didn't even stir as I crouched down in front of him.

'Hey,' I whispered, and Numel blinked, shook his head, and looked at me.

_'Wh . . . who's that?'_ he asked.

'I'm a Team Magma agent from a different division, I've come to collect the kecleon you caught,' I said, and felt my heartbeat racing . . . this had to work, it had to . . ..

Numel paused. _'Rose never said anything about someone coming to collect anything . . ..'_

'Yeah, I just got the order then, but it's urgent, the boss really needs that kecleon,' I said.

_'I think I should ask Rose about it . . .'_ said Numel uncertainly, and went to get up.

'No!' I hissed, and he turned to me, shocked. 'No, really, it's OK . . . she'll get mad if you wake her up, you don't want that.'

_'No,'_ Numel shook his head. _'I don't.'_

'Exactly,' I said. 'So come on, just give me the kecleon, and we'll get going.'

_'OK,'_ said Numel, and turned to the pile of pokéballs. He looked at them for a moment, then turned back to me. _'Wait . . . what's a kecleon?'_

I blinked at him. 'You don't know what a kecleon is?'

_'I'm not good at remembering names,'_ sighed Numel. _'I know what's in each ball but I don't know the names of them.'_

'Oh,' I said. 'Um . . . it's like . . . a green lizard, with a red bit around its belly.'

_'Oh!'_ Numel exclaimed, and nodded enthusiastically. _'I know!'_

He opened his mouth and picked up one of the pokéballs in it, then brought it over to me. I held out my hand, and he dropped it into my palm. I grinned. That had been even easier than I'd thought!

_'There you go!'_ he said happily, as if pleased to have been of help.

'Thanks,' I nodded. 'I'll uh, I'll tell the boss how co-operative you were and maybe he'll give you a bonus.'

_'Really!?'_ he exclaimed.

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'Well uh, see ya.'

_'Bye!'_ smiled Numel. I gestured to Tom, and we headed away.

_'Wow,'_ said Tom once we were out of the clearing. _'You handled that really well. I'm quite amazed!'_

'It wasn't so much me handling it well as Numel being a bit dense,' I smiled. I looked at the pokéball in my hand. 'It's so great to have you back, Cam. Come on, let's get you out of there.'

I pushed the button on the pokéball and it grew to its larger size. I opened it, and there was a flash of light as the pokémon inside materialised. I smiled as it began to form shape . . . and then my expression dropped.

The pokémon that appeared was a tall green lizard which stood on long hind legs. He had two long, thin arms with leaves attached to his wrists, a long neck with another leaf extending off the back of his head, and two leaves for tail feathers. He narrowed his fierce yellow eyes and snarled at me, then opened his long jaws and let out a sharp cry. I took a step back in shock.

'That's not Cam!' I exclaimed.

_'That's a grovyle!'_ Tom cried. _'Watch out Katherine, they can be fierce!'_

He extended his claws and barred his teeth at the lizard, but the grovyle ignored him and swiped at me. I managed to dodge his attack, but then I was distracted as I heard voices and movement behind me. The grovyle swiped again and this time he knocked me to the ground. I landed with a thump and cringed in pain, but I didn't have a lot of time to think about it because suddenly, two humans and two pokémon were standing in front of me . . . Adrian, Rose, Leon and Numel.

'So you've come looking for your little friend,' smiled Rose. 'Well you can be assured that you'll be together now, because all you've managed to do is get yourself trapped too.'


	11. Chapter 10: The Escape

**Chapter Ten - The Escape**

  
  


I was trapped. I had Team Magma in front of me and the grovyle behind me . . . there was nowhere to run. I ground my teeth and pulled myself up.

'Stay down!' Rose ordered.

'Yeah right!' I growled at her as I got to my feet. I heard the grovyle snarling behind me, and glanced at him. He could attack me any moment now . . .. I gulped and turned back to Team Magma. 'Give me Cam.'

Rose laughed. 'Oh, _that's _a good one! We've got you trapped and _you're_ the one making demands!?'

'I mean it,' I said. 'If you don't let him go I'll become a vulpix and burn you to ashes.'

'That's one of the worst threats I've ever heard!' Leon snarled. 'You're not capable of doing that and you know it. You're one of the lowest-level fighters I've ever seen, and it's no wonder considering you're just a pathetic human.'

'You're calling _me_ pathetic when you're the one who got knocked out by _Numel_ earlier today?' I asked cockily.

Leon narrowed his eyes and snarled, but by the looks of things he couldn't think of a comeback to that.

'Enough talk, you're coming with us!' Rose snapped, and grabbed my arm. I tried to pull free but her grip was firm. I reached my spare hand over and tried to pry her fingers off my arm, but it was no use. This woman was strong. Either that, or I was just weak . . ..

Rose dragged me back into the clearing, and I couldn't remember ever feeling so pathetic. This wasn't even a pokémon who was overpowering me with its attacks. This was a human simply dragging me away, and I couldn't do a thing to stop her. It was no wonder I hadn't been able to save Cam.

I shook my head angrily, mad at myself as much as at anyone else. I could still save Cam, I could still get out of here . . . somehow.

'Grab some rope, let's tie her up!' said Rose. Adrian nodded, and pulled a piece of rope out of the bag that was lying beside the pokéballs. He came over to where Rose was holding me, and the two of them pulled my arms behind my back, tying my wrists together firmly.

'You're not gonna get away with this, you know,' I said defiantly. 'As soon as they realise I'm not at camp they'll call the police and you'll be done for.'

'You seem to be forgetting one major factor here,' said Adrian. 'We're Team Magma. We don't get caught.'

'Yeah, and besides,' said Rose. 'Your little camp buddies won't notice a thing until tomorrow morning, and we'll be long gone by then.'

'That's right,' nodded Adrian. With that, he took a radio off his belt and put it to his ear. 'Bring the helicopter to the clearing, we've got the girl.'

I narrowed my eyes. There was still some way to get out of here, there had to be. What if I could somehow get to those pokéballs and release the pokémon? That would cause some havoc and buy me some time . . . but I couldn't do anything while these guys had their hold on me. I glanced around, and belatedly remembered the grovyle. I turned to where he had been, and gasped when I saw him passed out on the ground covered in burns . . . standing beside him was Leon, his arms folded triumphantly. I gulped. He sure had managed to recover since that afternoon. It was going to be tricky to get out of here with a charmeleon as powerful as him against me. If only I weren't so overpowered by these guys . . ..

Hang on . . . the grovyle was knocked out, Leon was beside him . . . but where was Tom?

'What's taking them so long?' Rose complained, and I felt her grip on my arm ease up with her impatience.

'Calm down Rose,' said Adrian. 'We only just called them, it'll be a few minutes before they get here.'

'In those few minutes, anything could happen,' muttered Rose. 'I swear, if we fail after getting this far, I'm _not_ taking the blame.'

'We're not gonna fail, Rose,' Adrian reassured her. 'We've got her and the kecleon, there's no one left to help her now.'

I smiled. You shouldn't be so sure, Adrian. I had just spotted a murkrow landing in the tree behind him.

'It doesn't matter, anything could go wrong, especially with that disobedient charmeleon and that half-witted numel on our side,' said Rose bitterly. 'Where is Numel anyway? Numel! Get back into your pokéball!'

She let go of my hand for a moment to take her pokéball off her belt. I took the opportunity to run . . . but I'd barely gotten a few metres when Adrian grabbed me again.

'Oh no you don't!' he said, pulling me back to him. As he did so, the murkrow swooped down out of the tree and hit him square in the head with his beak. He cried out in pain and let go of me, putting his over his head as the murkrow flapped about his head, jabbing at him with his beak.

'Rose!' Adrian yelled. 'Grab the girl, will you!?'

'You idiot, why'd you let her go!?' Rose yelled back at him.

'You're the one who let go of her!' Adrian exclaimed. I just laughed and ran for the pile of pokéballs.

'Not so fast!' Rose ran for me, but was stopped dead in her tracks as two more murkrows flew at her from either side, poking her with their beaks and slapping her with their wings. 'Where are all these stupid birds coming from!? Leon! Do something about this!'

'It's your own stupid fault, you incompetent humans!' Leon growled.

I grinned and looked down at the pokéballs. My hands were still tied behind my back, so I couldn't use them . . . so I reached my foot out to try to open the balls that way.

'_Wait a sec, Katherine!_'

I turned to see Tom running up to me, and I smiled.

'_Bend down, I'll cut that rope for you,_' he said. I did as he said, and he sliced through the rope easily, releasing my hands.

'Thanks,' I said, rubbing my wrists for a moment before turning my attention to the pokéballs. 'One of these has gotta be Cam. It's probably a stupid idea to open them all, but who cares?'

'_We should release them all anyway,_' said Tom. '_These are probably all pokémon who Team Magma have captured in this park._'

I looked at him for a moment, shocked. I hadn't even thought about it like that . . . I'd been so caught up in trying to rescue Cam that I hadn't even considered all the other pokémon that Team Magma must have captured there . . .. I shook my head. I didn't have time to think about it. I only had time for action.

I grabbed two pokéballs and opened them. A tangela and a sudowoodo appeared. They blinked and looked around, confused.

'_You're free,_' said Tom. '_You can go now, but I'd really appreciate your help to fend that charmeleon off._'

'_I guess we owe you one,_' said the tangela, and looked up at the sudowoodo.

'_Yeah!_' she nodded.

'_OK Katherine, I'll leave this up to you,_' said Tom. I nodded, as he and two pokémon I'd just released ran off to where Leon was. I was worried about them getting hurt . . . the sudowoodo might have stood a chance but that tangela wouldn't last long against a fire-type . . . and Tom had said that he wasn't strong enough to fight Leon. But that was only more reason for me to stay here and release more pokémon. I grabbed two more pokéballs.

This time an electrike and a sableye appeared. They both scurried off into the bushes, and I sighed. Some help they were. I grabbed the next two. A heracross appeared and looked around frantically, but the other pokémon collapsed on the ground as soon as it materialised. I opened my eyes wide. It was him!

'Cam!' I exclaimed, and grabbed him, pulling him into my arms. He was unconscious, but breathing. I hurriedly released the remaining pokémon and leapt to my feet without even looking at what they were. 'Tom! I've got him! Let's get out of here!'

I looked over to where the tangela was holding Leon down with his vines while the sudowoodo threw rocks at him and Tom threw . . . gold coins!? I blinked for a moment, baffled by the attack, then shook my head and called out again.

'Tom!' I called. 'We've gotta go!'

'_Murkrows!_' called Tom, not moving from battle. '_One of you carry the kecleon back to my cabin!_'

'_I'm on it!_' one of the murkrows who was attacking Rose swooped over to me. He took Cam in his talons and took to the skies, flying away. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least Cam was safe . . . but now how were Tom and I going to get out of here?

'_Katherine, you get out of here, we'll hold the charmeleon off!_' Tom called.

'No way!' I exclaimed. 'I'm not leaving you here!'

'Yes you are, 'cause you're staying too!'

I turned to see Adrian pull his pokéball out, the murkrow still pecking at him. He glared at me menacingly.

'Poochyena! Grab that girl!'

He dropped his pokéball to the ground and it opened, his little grey dog pokémon appearing. She caught sight of me and growled, hunching her back as she got ready to attack. I backed away. Poochyena had beaten me as a vulpix, imagine how badly she could hurt me as a human without any attacks to defend myself with.

'_I've had enough of you, vulpix girl,_' she snarled. '_Let's get this over and done with!_'

She leapt at me with her jaws open and her claws outstretched, and I held my arm up to block the attack . . . but then she yelped, and I stared in shock as a strange sticky string-like substance flew at her from several directions and wound around her body, bringing her down to the ground and holding her there. I stared for a moment, then took a look around me to see what must have been at least thirty caterpies, weedles and wurmples around the edges of the clearing.

'What the . . .' I breathed, looking around at them in disbelief.

'What on Earth is going on!?' Adrian exclaimed. 'Poochyena, get that junk off of you!'

'_I'm trying!_' Poochyena gasped, as she struggled to break free of the sticky net.

'What is with the pokémon in this park!?' Rose cried. 'It's like they're out to get us!'

'They are when you try to capture all their friends!' I yelled at them. 'You guys are disgusting, capturing innocent creatures just to make money! If you guys mess with my friends or any other wild pokémon again you'll regret it, 'cause now you know what can happen when they team up against you!'

'You don't scare us!' Rose growled, and was about to continue when a caterpie suddenly shot a String Shot into her face. She cried out, and then several more of the bugs shot at her, and she fell to the ground, covered in the sticky net. 'Get this disgusting stuff off me!'

'Rose!' Adrian exclaimed, and was about to run over to her when the bugs dealt him the same treatment, encasing him in String Shot and making him collapse. I laughed, and ran over to where Tom and the others were still restraining Leon.

'Come on, let's get out of here!' I said.

'_Bugs, if you'd be so kind . . ._' smiled Tom. The bug pokémon turned their attention on Leon.

'No!' he cried, thrashing about. 'Leave me alone! I'm not a stupid human like them, I'm a pokémon! You can't do this to-'

He was cut off as a String Shot wrapped around his jaws and locked them shut. I grinned. It was about time Leon got shown a thing or two by his fellow pokémon. As the bugs continued to wrap their net around him, the tangela pulled his vines back and let go of Leon. He turned to Tom expectantly.

'_Let's go back to the cabin,_' said Tom. '_I'd love to see the look on the helicopter man's face when he finds them like this, but we've gotta get back to help Katherine's friend out. Thanks a lot for your help, you two. If you come back with us, I'll sneak you some food from my humans' kitchen._'

'_Really!?_' the tangela and the sudowoodo exclaimed in unison. Tom nodded, and the two pokémon cheered.

'_All right, now let's go!_' said Tom. With that, the four of us turned and hurried back to the rangers' cabin.

  
  


As soon as we got back, Tom found some medicine to revive Cam and gave the tangela and the sudowoodo some food. We both thanked them, and they headed off into the bushes while we sprayed the revival medicine on Cam. As I watched him slowly open his eyes, I belatedly realised that his scales weren't red anymore . . . they were green again. Did this mean that he was back to normal . . .?

'_K . . . Kit . . ._' breathed Cam, blinking at me and then shaking his head to clear his thoughts. I breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive, and he by the sounds of things, he was himself again.

'Yeah,' I smiled. 'It's me.'

Cam looked at me uncertainly, and then I remembered that he couldn't understand human words. I sighed and turned to Tom.

'Tom, can you help us out?' I asked. 'I can understand Cam, but he can't understand me.'

'_I'll translate for him, but I . . . I must have misheard . . ._' said Tom, eyeing me uncertainly. '_He said "Kit" and you said "yeah it's me"?_'

'Y . . . yeah,' I said, giving him a curious look. What was the problem?

'_But you're Katherine,_' said Tom. '_Kit is that vulpix . . .._'

I stared at him, then sighed, looking away.

'_I . . ._' I heard Cam's voice, and turned back to see him pulling himself to his feet. '_I know it's hard to believe, but . . ._' He turned to me. '_Is it OK if I tell him, Kit?_' I nodded, and he turned back to Tom. '_She and the vulpix are the same person . . .._'

Tom gave Cam a strange look, then turned to me. He paused, then laughed. '_You guys are crazy._'

Cam sighed, shaking his head. '_Don't worry about it, then. The point is that you both saved me . . . thanks so much._'

'I'm sorry Cam,' I sighed. 'It was my fault you got captured in the first place.'

Cam looked at me, then turned to Tom for a translation.

'_She says you're welcome_,' said Tom, and I glared at him. He just smiled.

'_Oh,_' said Cam, and looked back to me with a smile.

'Cam,' I said. 'What happened to you today? With that . . . that "Colour Change" thing, when you turned red and got really vicious? I thought you'd stay that way forever, and it was so scary . . ..'

'_Ah,_' said Tom. '_She wants to know about your Colour Change ability. She says she thought it'd last forever._'

'_Oh,_' said Cam. He sighed, looking down at the ground. '_I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it earlier, Kit. It's just that . . . well . . . I was scared you might not want to be my friend anymore . . .._'

'What!?' I exclaimed.

'_Some kecleons can control their ability fine, and it only changes their type, that's it,_' said Cam. He sighed. '_But with some of us it changes our mood completely . . . and because we're so unpredictable, people don't like to be friends with us . . . we . . . we generally just become outcasts . . .._'

'Oh Cam,' I sighed.

'_That's why I don't like to battle,_' said Cam. '_I'm afraid of what'll happen when I get hit by an attack of a different type. I know I should have told you, Kit, but I was just scared that you might not look at me in the same way anymore . . .._'

I shook my head. 'Cam . . . I'd never look at you in a different way because of something like that 'cause . . . well, I know how you feel. I do the exact same thing. I'm scared to tell anyone about me becoming a vulpix because I'm scared they'll look at me differently too.' Tom blinked at me, and I sighed. 'Just tell him Tom, please.'

'_Um,_' said Tom, looking at me uncertainly before turning to Cam. '_She says she does the same thing as you except with her it's about . . . er . . . becoming a vulpix._'

Cam blinked at me, his mouth falling open in shock. '_I . . . never even realised how similar it is._'

'Neither did I until you said that thing about not wanting to tell anyone,' I said, shaking my head. I looked at him, and forced a smile. 'So I guess we're both outcasts, eh?'

'_She says you're both outcasts . . ._' said Tom uncertainly.

'_Yeah,_' said Cam, looking down at the ground. '_I guess we are._'

  
  


With the help of Tom as an interpreter, Cam and I talked a bit more until we all decided to get some sleep. We thanked Tom for everything he'd done, and I felt guilty that I didn't have any way to repay him, but he said it didn't matter. I was to take Cam home with me the next day, and at first I was really worried about how I'd do this without getting caught. Then Cam reminded me about his ability to turn invisible, and I realised just how simple it was going to be after all.

So the next day the year nine students of Spectrum High School piled onto the buses to head home, and not one of them noticed the little red zig-zag that followed me on. We made it back home safely, and as soon as we got back to school my parents rushed over to me and started fussing, asking me if I was all right and how awful it was that we'd been so close to Team Magma and how much I could have gotten hurt and how good it was that they'd brought as home as soon as possible. I didn't tell them just how close I'd been to Team Magma, or how I actually had gotten hurt, or that the camp instructors had known about Team Magma since the first night and had done nothing about it. I was too tired to bother with telling the truth.

My parents obviously weren't going to let me take a brief detour to the Genesis Bushland on the way home, so I had to bring Cam home with me. I took him to my room but he seemed to find being indoors really uncomfortable, so I went out onto my balcony and sat there with him, taking my guitar with me as an excuse to be out there. Cam sat on the banister looking out as I strummed a few chords idly.

'_Human music sounds strange,_' said Cam.

'Does it?' I asked. I knew that he couldn't understand me, but the only way he was going to start understanding me was by hearing me talk, so I knew that the best thing to do would be to speak to him. He'd been sitting on a bus for a few hours with a large group of humans talking, so he must have been starting to pick up on a few things at least.

'_There's a tribe of nuzleafs who do this annual dance in the Genesis Bushland, it's really great, you should come and see it._'

I smiled. 'Sounds cool.'

'_Of course, Eustacia has the most soothing voice I've ever heard, and everyone else says so too,_' said Cam. '_That's why she's such a great healer, because her song lulls you into such a calm mood._'

'She didn't put me in a very calm mood,' I muttered. 'She told me I wasn't allowed to talk to you and then made me get blindfolded and thrown out of there.'

'Are you talking to yourself, kid?'

Startled, I turned to see Taylor standing on the opposite balcony, a cocky smile plastered across his face.

'You know that's one of the first signs of madness, right?' he asked.

'Why are you _always _there when I don't want you to be?' I asked, ignoring his stupid comment.

'When you don't want me to be?' Taylor asked. 'Isn't that all the time?'

'Exactly!' I said. 'You don't even live there! Go home!'

'And you know what else?' Taylor asked. 'Pretending to be annoyed by someone is a sign that you actually have deep feelings for them.'

'Oh please,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Excuse me while I throw up. You must be confusing me with Amanda.'

'Amanda?' Taylor asked. 'That brown-haired chick who hangs around with you?'

'That's the one, genius.'

'Does she have a thing for me?' he asked with a laugh.

'Oh come on, like you don't know,' I said, shaking my head.

He laughed. 'Aww, how cute. Ah well, she's not my type.'

'Like I care what your type is anyway.'

'Yeah, I really don't think you wanna know,' he said, and laughed. 'So what was the deal with your camp being cut short? Is it true that there were Team Magma agents?'

'Find out for yourself,' I said. 'I've got better things to do than talk to you.'

'Like sit there talking to yourself instead?' he asked, and I glared at him. 'Or were you talking to that kecleon?'

I looked at Cam quickly, and saw nothing but a zig-zag . . . he'd turned invisible again. I looked at him uncertainly, then turned back to Taylor.

'You _did_ notice it was there, right?' he asked. 'You're not so dumb you can't even spot a kecleon, are you?'

'I knew it was there,' I said. 'I was just surprised that _you_ noticed it.'

'Was that supposed to be an insult?' he asked. ''Cause it really wasn't a very effective one. I do have my glasses on in case you haven't noticed. Believe it or not that actually improves my eyesight, so really you saying you're surprised I noticed something is just making _you_ look dumb, not me.'

'Whatever,' I said, shaking my head.

'Ooh, the classic "I can't think of a comeback so I'm gonna pretend I don't care" reply,' grinned Taylor, and I glared at him. He only grinned wider, and gestured to Cam. 'What's a kecleon doing on your balcony anyway? I never saw you as the pokémon-friendly type. I would've thought a wild pokémon would run at the sight of you.'

'You have no idea,' I said, and felt the urge to tell him more, but forced myself not to. I wasn't ready to give him more fuel to insult me with.

'Uhh,' said Taylor. 'I know more about being pokémon-friendly than you do. I live on a farm, remember? You know, mareeps, miltanks, ponytas, torchics . . . I'm with pokémon all the time, they _love _me. You've never even had a pet pokémon and from what I've seen you've never wanted one either. Now tell me, kid, what is it that _I_ apparently have no idea about and _you're_ suddenly an expert on?'

'Pokémon,' I said simply. 'You have no idea about pokémon.'

Taylor snorted with laughter. 'Funny, kid. Real funny. When you realise how much your music sucks, try taking up comedy. _That_ is something you might do well in.'

'And when you realise what a jerk you are and that no one actually likes you, maybe you'll stop insulting people and take up being nice as _your _new hobby,' I said bitterly. 'But I won't count on it.'

With that, I turned and stormed inside, throwing the door shut behind me. He had no right to tell me my music sucked when he'd probably never picked up a musical instrument in his entire life. But that wasn't what was getting to me the most. It was what he'd said about pokémon. He thought that just because he spent a lot of time with them that he understood them, but he had no idea . . . he had no idea what it was like to actually _be_ a pokémon. I'd show him who understood the most about pokémon. I'd show him that he was a stuck-up jerk who couldn't even understand other humans, let alone pokémon.

But at the same time I knew that there was no way I could show him without risking revealing my secret. As tempting as it was to reveal it to him just to prove him wrong, I knew that I couldn't do that. No stupid argument between neighbours was worth becoming an outcast over.


	12. Chapter 11: Confusion

**Chapter Eleven - Confusion**

  
  


We got the next day off school due to the fact that camp had been cut short and we weren't even supposed to be back yet. Fortunately my parents had to work that day, so I was free to take Cam home to the Genesis Bushland without having to explain to them where I was going. So I headed down to the street with Cam, who had turned himself invisible. I took the long route out of the city to avoid seeing anyone I knew. It was almost impossible to walk the streets of Spectrum without seeing someone from school. Most of the time that didn't bother me, I even enjoyed it, but I couldn't afford to get caught up talking to someone. I'd promised Cam I'd take him home and that was what I was going to do.

Once we were out of the city and on route seventy-two, Cam turned himself visible again. I looked down at him and saw a big smile on his face. He must have been so excited to be home again. I still didn't understand why someone would have taken him to the National Park in the first place, but that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that he was safe, and happy. After being such a let down to Cam so far, it felt great to finally do something right for him.

'_Hey Kit . . ._' Cam ventured as the entrance to the Genesis Bushland came into view. '_I can't thank you enough for bringing me home. When the humans took me away I thought I'd never see my home again. It's like a miracle._'

I smiled. 'That's OK, Cam. You saved me when I was hurt after first becoming a vulpix. And besides, you're my friend. Of course I'm gonna help you.'

Cam looked up at me with a smile. Although he couldn't understand my words, he must have been able to tell by the tone of my voice that I was saying something friendly. He looked ahead again, staring into the bushland ahead of us.

'_I was thinking, Kit_,' he said. '_Eustacia made you leave her garden because you were human . . . but I don't think that's really fair. You're not just a human, you're a pokémon too. I think you should be allowed to enter the garden even when you're a human. Because even though you look like a human, you're still a pokémon too._'

I looked down at him uncertainly. Even as a human, I was also a pokémon? I hadn't thought about it like that. I'd accepted being able to _become_ a pokémon . . . but I never really thought that I was _always_ a pokémon . . .. As a human, did I consider myself a vulpix? I looked at my hands, and when I saw skin instead of fur, fingers instead of claws, I could hardly believe that they had ever been anything but human hands. Being a vulpix still felt like a dream . . . it was still hard to believe that it had ever happened. How could I really be a pokémon when I didn't believe I could be?

'_We should go and see Eustacia_,' continued Cam, as if not noticing my uncertainty at his words. '_I want to tell her that you rescued me from those humans, and that you brought me home. I'm sure she'll let you know the way to her garden. You're trustworthy. The reason humans aren't allowed is because she wants to keep away people who want to capture us. But I know you don't want to do that. After all, you're a pokémon too!_'

I swallowed, and nodded uncertainly. I wasn't _really_ a pokémon, though . . . after all, my parents were human. That made me human. But . . . how was I able to become a pokémon if I was completely human? It made no biological sense! Pokémon could evolve, some could change shape . . . but _humans_ couldn't. I sighed, suddenly feeling the need for answers again. I had to know why and how I was able to become a pokémon. If I couldn't know that, how could I ever know if I was totally human?

'_So, what do you say?_' Cam asked. '_Do you want to come and visit Eustacia?_'

I belatedly realised what he was saying. I'd been so caught up in wondering about just how human I was that I'd neglected to really listen to him. He was asking me to go and see that chansey. That chansey who he seemed to think was some kind of god . . . but I'd had experience to prove otherwise. She was supposed to be some kind of caring and nurturing mother figure, but she'd been horrible to me . . . she'd blindfolded me and thrown me out of her stupid secret garden without even letting me thank the one who'd helped me. As far as I was concerned, she could keep her garden secret. I never wanted to see her again.

'_Kit?_'

I looked down at Cam's hopeful face, and sighed. I wanted to tell him that Eustacia was one big fake, that she wasn't really as caring as she made herself out to be . . . but there wasn't any point in wasting my breath. Cam couldn't understand me anyway. But if I just refused to go he'd get offended . . . he might think I just wanted to get away from him. It was Eustacia I wanted to stay away from. All she'd done for me was tell me I had to leave. She hadn't said anything to help me, only told me to be careful of-

I stopped dead in my tracks. She had told me to be careful of Team Magma. _That_ was where I'd heard about them recently! But how could _she_ have known that Team Magma would be after me? It had been a coincidence that I'd ended up in the same place as Adrian and Rose and that they'd seen my transformation. It _had_ just been a coincidence, hadn't it? I suddenly found myself filled with suspicion. Eustacia had known that I would run into Team Magma . . . but how could she have known that in advance? What if she had _made_ me run into them? What if she was working with Team Magma, and she had been the one who had told them I'd be there, she had been the one who had told those humans to take Cam there, she had set this whole thing up? It all made so much sense . . . how could a wild pokémon who refused contact with humans ever understand human speech anyway? Simple . . . she was a spy, a fake, a scheming Team Magma associate . . ..

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'I'll come and see her.'

But not to ask her for permission to enter her garden . . . to confront her and expose her for what she really was, and to show her that I'd overcome her allies, that not even Team Magma could stop me.

'_Great_,' smiled Cam. '_Let's go!_'

I nodded, and Cam led the way into the bushland. He smiled widely as he looked around at the plants at either side of us, at the oddishes in the ground, the heracrosses on the trees, the ninjasks buzzing through the air.

'_It's so great to be home!_'

I forced a smile, but I couldn't feel cheerful anymore. All I could think about was Eustacia and what she'd done to me. I couldn't wait to confront her and show all those little pokémon who were so loyal to her what she was really like.

Caught up in my thoughts of exposing Eustacia's true intentions, I didn't notice the increasing numbers of ninjasks flying above us. Before I realised what was happening, we had come to a tree with what must have been at least twenty nincadas crawling over it and digging around its base. Buzzing around the tree was a huge swarm of ninjasks, and covering the trunk were their empty shells which had been left behind in their evolution from nincadas. I had to smile, thinking about how freaked out Kimi would have been if she'd been there.

'_Wow_,' said Cam. '_I've never noticed this nincada base before! Hi everyone, it's a pleasure to meet you!_'

The ninjasks and nincadas looked at him for a moment, then turned their eyes to me.

'_What is this human doing here?_'

'_It's going to capture us!_'

'_Quick, everyone! Get ready to fight!_'

'_Wait!_' Cam exclaimed, stepping in front of me and holding his arms out to either side. '_She's my friend! She's not going to capture you, I promise! She's very friendly!_'

'_You dare call a human your friend!? You must be one of those brainwashed trained pokémon!_'

'_What!? No, I'm wild just like you! She's very friendly with pokémon, she hasn't brainwashed me!_'

'What is with you wild pokémon!?' I exclaimed. 'What's so scary about humans anyway? You've got to stop being so paranoid. We're not _all_ out to catch you, in fact _most_ of us aren't! Believe it or not most of us are friendly towards pokémon!'

'_What did it say?_'

'_I think it's threatening us!_'

'_Attack it!_'

'_Stop!_' Cam exclaimed as the ninjasks buzzed towards me. '_She's not threatening you! She would never do that!_'

His words were of no use. The ninjasks swarmed towards us, and as they did, their empty shells on the tree began to move. I stared as the shells shook into life and took flight, floating through the air towards us. I silently cursed myself for being so stupid and forgetting the evolution pattern of nincadas; it was one of the first things we'd learnt in pokémon biology. The empty shells that they left behind in their evolution weren't just lifeless objects, they were living beings, and a whole other species of pokémon . . . shedinjas. Not much more was known about the strange creatures, only that they were seemingly invincible.

'_Kit, they're not listening to us, we've gotta run!_' Cam cried, and I nodded. We spun around and ran . . . but we barely managed to go a few metres when three shedinjas swooped down in front of us, and we stopped in our tracks. I went to turn back towards the tree, but the ninjask swarm blocked my way. We were surrounded.

'Leave us alone!' I yelled. 'We never did anything to you! Just buzz off, will you?'

'_Kit, stop yelling at them, you're only making them angry_,' said Cam, his eyes darting around at the insects. '_Please ninjasks and shedinjas, my friend doesn't want to hurt you or capture you. Please just let us go!_'

'_We're not gonna listen to a pokémon who claims to be friends with humans!_'

The ninjasks crept closer to me, and soon they were close enough to be able to swipe at me . . . I quickly turned back around to see a shedinja right in front of my face. He opened his hollow eyes wide, and I shivered as I stared into his empty shell. I'd never been afraid of bug pokémon, but this thing was creepy . . . its body was hollow, and I could see into it. Although I'd seen pictures of ghost pokémon before, seeing them in the flesh was something completely different . . . they were a lot scarier.

The shedinja took a deep breath, and then its hollow eyes began to glow. Although my instincts told me to look away, something made me hold eye contact with the pokémon. I stared into the glowing orbs of its eyes for a few seconds, before feeling a sharp pain in my head. I cried out and put my hands over my head, shutting my eyes tightly as a stinging headache engulfed me.

'_Kit, let's run!_' Cam cried, and I could tell by the pain in his voice that he'd felt the attack too. I forced my hands away from my head and opened my eyes, but as I looked around, the world was spinning. I felt my body swaying from side to side, and the ground below me seemed to shake. I finally caught sight of a small green figure running ahead of me. Realising it must have been Cam, I chased after it.

I kept my eyes fixed on Cam as he led me hurriedly through the bushland, but my head was aching and I wanted more than anything to just sit down and close my eyes. At the back of my head I could sense, somehow, that the shedinjas were following us, so I ran on. I stumbled a few times, tripping over rocks and plants that I didn't realise were there. I couldn't remember ever feeling so dizzy in my whole life.

'_Keep following me, we're almost at the Extant Cave!_' Cam called. '_We'll run in there before they can get us and then we can go see Eustacia!_'

I didn't care what we did or where we went, as long as we got away from those pokémon. I kept running, and only a few seconds later we stumbled out into a huge open field. I rubbed my forehead for a moment, then blinked as I looked around. My head was still spinning, but I was sure I wasn't hallucinating . . . we had somehow run out onto a farm. The fields stretched out for as far as I could see, and cluttered along it were tauros, miltanks, and mareep.

'_Where are we!?_' Cam exclaimed. '_I was sure we were heading straight for the Extant Cave!_'

I was about to respond to him, when I sensed something coming up behind us, and I turned around to see the shedinjas still following us. I gasped and kept running, and so did Cam.

'_We need to get back into the bushland!_' Cam cried. '_This place is too open, there's no way we can lose them here!_'

'I know, but we can't turn around, they'll just attack us!' I gasped, lowering my head and charging onwards. I wasn't sure how much longer I could run for. My heart was pounding, I was sweating madly, and I kept gasping frantically for air. I'd never been any good at sport so I'd never really been particularly fit either . . . even Cam, with his short little legs, was running faster than I was. Any moment now and those shedinjas would be upon us. I couldn't do anything to fend them off, and neither could Cam. Even if he weren't outnumbered by them, I would never want to him to have to fight them . . . if he got hit by one of their attacks it might change his personality again, and I never wanted to see that happen after last time.

'Rapidash! Ember!'

Startled by the voice, I stumbled over and fell flat on my face. I moaned and rubbed my aching head, then turned and looked behind me to see someone riding on a white horse with a flaming mane and tail. The rider pulled on the rapidash's reins, and she reared up on her hind legs, opened her mouth, and spat out a ball of fire which flew at the shedinjas. As soon as the flames touched them, the bug pokémon plummeted to the ground, passed out completely. I blinked. All that running and they'd been defeated in one hit? I'd thought shedinjas were supposed to be nearly impossible to beat in battle! That rapidash must have been incredibly strong. I looked up at her trainer gratefully.

'Thanks so much,' I said, and took a few deep breaths as I tried to calm my breathing down. 'You saved us. I thought we were done for, then you burnt them out with one Ember . . . that's a really impressive rapidash you've got there, you must be a great trainer.'

The rider laughed. 'Sure am, kid.'

I blinked. I recognised that voice. That smug laugh, that cocky attitude . . . no. No, it couldn't be! I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and stared at the rider as he dismounted the rapidash and grinned over at me.

'Taylor!' I almost spat.

'Took you long enough,' he smiled, and I narrowed my eyes at him, grounding my teeth. I couldn't believe Cam and I had been saved by _him_ of all people. I'd almost rather we hadn't been saved at all! And even worse, I'd been so confused that I hadn't even recognised him, and I'd actually thanked him, I'd actually _complimented_ him on his pokémon training . . .. I took a deep breath and got to my feet in a huff. I could tell that he was never going to let me forget this. It would become yet another addition to his repertoire of things to insult me about.

'I know Confuse Ray can have pretty drastic effects on pokémon, but I've never seen it affect a human so badly,' said Taylor. 'You must be really, really weak for it to get to you that much.'

'Not as weak as you,' I muttered.

'Excuse me?' Taylor asked. 'I may have heard incorrectly, but weren't you just telling me how strong I was as a trainer?'

'No, I was telling you the rapidash was strong,' I said, folding my arms across my chest. 'I bet you didn't even train her yourself.'

'To tell you the truth, nope, I didn't,' said Taylor. 'This one's my step-sister's rapidash. _My_ rapidashes are way stronger. This one's actually not even all that strong at all, she only just evolved. I guess you don't know much about shedinjas, huh?' I glared at him, and he smiled. 'See, shedinjas are only affected by super-effective attacks. So most of the time they're invincible . . . but as soon as you hit them with a super-effective attack like Ember, they get knocked out in an instant, no matter how weak the attacker is.'

'I don't need a biology lesson,' I rolled my eyes. Taylor opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when another voice called out.

'_Taylor_!'

I turned to see a thin canine pokémon with large pointed ears and short mauve fur bounding towards us. When she reached Taylor, she rubbed her head against his leg.

'_I heard all the commotion . . . are you all right?_' she asked, looking up at him, her dark oval eyes filled with worry.

'Hey,' said Taylor softly, and bent down on his knees beside the espeon, rubbing her head gently. 'What's the matter?'

I stared at him, my mouth and eyes wide open in shock. I couldn't believe I was seeing Taylor act so comforting and friendly towards that espeon . . . the only words he ever spoke to me or anyone else I knew were insults. I'd never seen him with any of his friends and I was sure he didn't have any . . . but I'd never seen him with a pokémon until now, either. He'd told me that living on a farm had let him become friendly with pokémon, but I'd never really believed it. After becoming a vulpix, after making friends with Cam, I was sure that no one could ever understand pokémon like I did . . ..

Cam! I belatedly remembering about my friend. I looked around for him frantically, scared that he might have been attacked by the shedinjas before Taylor's rapidash had knocked them out. Fortunately, though, I spotted him standing only a metre away from me, looking at Taylor just as curiously as I had been.

'There's nothing to worry about,' Taylor told the espeon as he patted her on the head. 'You should know those shedinjas aren't a problem. They may have been scary for the kid, but not for me.'

I glared at him. Whether he was friendly with pokémon or not, he was still a jerk to me.

'_Kit_,' said Cam uncertainly. '_Isn't that the boy who was talking to you last night_?'

I nodded, and Taylor must have heard Cam's voice, because he turned and looked over at the kecleon. He eyed him for a moment, then looked up at me.

'What's with you and kecleons?' he asked. 'Is that the same kecleon from last night?'

'Does it matter?' I asked. I didn't want to give away too much about Cam. If he knew that Cam and I were friends he might start to wonder how we'd met . . ..

'Is it your pet or something? You know, you're not allowed to keep pets in the building you live in.'

'I'm aware of that, thank you very much. He's not my pet. He just keeps following me around. It's not my fault pokémon like me.'

I was grateful for once that Cam couldn't understand human speech. I hadn't meant what I'd said, of course, but if he'd heard he might have been offended, not realising that I was only saying it to get Taylor off my back.

'It's not your fault that pokémon follow you around yet you wander into the Genesis Bushland on your own no your day off?' Taylor asked, raising an eyebrow.

'I was taking it home, for your information, and- wait a second, aren't you meant to be at school?'

Taylor paused. 'I'm sick.'

'Oh, obviously,' I said, shaking my head. 'Sick enough to go riding around on a rapidash fighting shedinjas.'

'Hey, if I hadn't stopped those shedinjas you'd still be running! And besides, I really was sick this morning. I'm, um, better now.'

'Then why don't you go to school now?' I looked at my watch. 'There's still two hours left.'

''Cause some of us don't live as close to school as you do, it takes me half an hour to get there, so there's not much point,' said Taylor. 'And since when do you care so much about attendance anyway?'

'I just think you're avoiding school 'cause you don't have any friends.'

Taylor laughed, shaking his head. 'Whatever, kid. I've got plenty of friends. Look at this one right here.' He patted the espeon on the head, and she smiled.

'I'm talking about human friends, Taylor,' I sighed.

'I know,' he smiled. 'I just think you underestimate the friendships that you can have with pokémon.'

'I understand friendships with pokémon better than you do,' I said defiantly.

'What, you and that kecleon?' Taylor asked with a laugh. 'Yeah right. I've lived with pokémon my whole life, and you reckon that since you've got one pokémon following you around that you're suddenly an expert on human-pokémon relationships?'

'You know nothing about human-pokémon relationships,' I shook my head.

'You keep saying _I_ know nothing yet you never tell me what this incredible insight you claim to have into pokémon actually is,' said Taylor. 'I've told you why I understand pokémon, why don't you tell me why you reckon you do?'

''Cause it's none of your business,' I glared at him.

'If you don't want me to know then stop arguing with me. You're never gonna win an argument unless you provide some kind of evidence. And until you do, there's no way anyone's gonna believe your little rant on understanding pokémon. _You're_ the one who knows nothing, kid.'

I took a deep breath, trying to hold down my anger. I wanted to tell him, I wanted to yell at him, to say that he may have lived around pokémon but that he'd never _been_ one . . .. But how could I tell him? How could I ever tell him such an incredible secret? Rose and Adrian finding out had led me into enough trouble already . . . I didn't think that Taylor would try to do anything like they had but I hardly knew him . . . for all I knew, _he _could have been part of Team Magma too . . .. I shook my head. I didn't know who to trust anymore. I wanted to talk to _someone_ about what had happened to me but I didn't feel that it was safe to tell anyone but Cam, and he couldn't understand me while I was a human . . ..

I felt my body heating up, and I gasped, gulping down the sparks of the fire that I was sure was ready to ignite inside me. I wanted to become a pokémon and talk to Cam, because I didn't feel like I trusted humans anymore . . .. But I couldn't transform, not here, not now . . . if Taylor saw that happen it would only be a thousand times worse than it already was.

'_Taylor . . ._' the espeon looked up at her master uncertainly. '_I sense something strange about this girl . . .._'

I glared at her. She was a psychic pokémon . . . I had to be careful what I did around her. I didn't really believe in mind-reading but she seemed to be able to sense that something wasn't quite normal about me. I couldn't let her tell Taylor that.

'Yeah, well maybe I sense something strange about you!' I said. 'Nothing can be normal about someone who's so friendly with a moron like Taylor!'

The espeon stared at me, her eyes wide with shock as she took an uncertain step back. I turned my attention to Taylor, who glanced down at the espeon before getting to his feet and eyeing me.

'Um,' he said. 'Why are you yelling at my espeon? Have you completely lost it?'

I blinked, then felt my face go hot with embarrassment. I couldn't believe I'd been so stupid! I could understand what that espeon was saying but _Taylor_ couldn't! He would have just heard something like "espeon esp esp!". The fact that she'd directly addressed him had thrown me off, I'd completely forgotten that I talked the same way to Cam even though he couldn't understand me. The epseon lived around humans, so she could probably understand Taylor, but he couldn't understand her. And as far as Taylor knew, I couldn't understand her either. The fact that I'd responded to her, especially bursting out and insulting her like that, must have looked so strange.

I took a deep breath and turned away from him. Why had I been so stupid? I was continuously forgetting that I wasn't like everyone else, I was always letting it slip that I had an ability that no one else did. It was no wonder that the espeon could tell I was strange, but now Taylor could too. I sighed heavily and walked off hurriedly, shaking my head. Taylor was one of the people I least wanted to be my friend or to understand me, but that didn't mean that I wanted him to think I was a weirdo, either. So much for that.


	13. Chapter 12: Trouble Returns

I thought I'd release this chapter a bit quicker so that everyone can have a bit of a Christmas present. ^_^ Following chapters should probably come out a bit more regularly than they have so far anyway, but Chapter Thirteen may take a little while because I'll be away for a few weeks. So until then, I hope you enjoy the new chapter, and have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!  


In response to The Mad Tortoise's question about italics, I save my chapters as .html files to upload them to the site. The html tags i and /i enclose the italicised text to make it appear like that. I write the story in WordPerfect, and when I save the chapters as .html files in this program, it makes the italics enclosed with em and /em instead, which would normally be the same as the i and /i except that fanfiction.net doesn't recognise it for some reason . . . so after saving it as an .html file, I then have to do a find and replace to change the tags to i and /i, and after that it displays properly. Hope that helps . . ..

**Chapter Twelve - Trouble Returns**

  
  


It wasn't until I got home that I realised I'd stormed off without saying goodbye to Cam. I felt guilty about leaving him there on Taylor's farm, but since it was right beside the Genesis Bushland, at least he'd be able to find his own way home. Even so, leaving him there had been a really unfriendly thing to do, especially after I'd promised him I'd go and see Eustacia. Hopefully he'd understand when I saw him next . . . if I saw him next. I decided to go to the Genesis Bushland after school on Monday, but that didn't guarantee that I would see him. The place was pretty big and I didn't actually know which part of it Cam lived in. I couldn't even remember whereabouts I'd woken up after that first time I'd become a vulpix. But I was sure that I would see him again somehow. After running into him all the way over at the Aruto National Park, it couldn't be too hard to find him in his own home, could it?

I was surprised at how normal things were back at school on Monday. The teachers made no mention of the Team Magma incident at camp, and hardly any of the students even spoke about it either, as if they'd gotten over it already. I was relieved to have Team Magma out of my mind, but at the same time, the fact that it had been forgotten so easily made me worry that we weren't being cautious enough. I decided not to let it bother me, though, and tried to concentrate on the lessons.

'It's so cold,' Amanda shivered beside me in our afternoon geography lesson. 'Why aren't the heaters on?'

'They are,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'You always think it's cold. You should put on some weight.'

Amanda laughed. 'At least I'm not like you that time when you thought it was hot and everyone else was shivering.'

'When was that?' I asked.

'A month or two ago,' shrugged Amanda. 'Then it started raining and you ran out of school, it was so freaky.'

'Oh yeah,' I said, realising that she was talking about the day I'd first become a vulpix. I smiled. It had been scary at the time, but looking back on it made me feel happy, somehow. I turned to Amanda with a smile. 'Hey, if you're feeling cold when no one else is, maybe you're gonna go transform into a vaporeon.'

'Um . . . what?' Amanda asked.

I laughed. 'Don't worry. Inside joke.'

'With who?' Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow.

I paused. 'I dunno. Myself.'

Amanda laughed. 'You're crazy, Kit.' I glared at her, and she just smiled. 'I wouldn't mind being a vaporeon. I could have water gun contests with Woopy.'

I shuddered. 'As long as you water gun it all the way out the window and it never comes back, that's fine by me.'

'Kit!' Amanda exclaimed. 'Don't be so cruel! Woopy's never done anything nasty to you and you just-'

'Oh, hasn't it? What about how it always starts spraying water at me whenever I'm at your place, and the time you hid it in my backpack and it jumped out and attacked me, or the time you-' I cut myself off as I caught sight of something moving on the bench at the side of the room. I squinted and moved my head forward to look more closely. It couldn't possibly be what I thought it was . . . no way . . ..

But somehow it was. A small red zig-zag was floating in the air, moving along the bench.

'Cam, what are you doing here?' I breathed, shaking my head.

'What?' Amanda asked. 'What are you talking about, Kit?'

'Nothing,' I shook my head, but kept my eyes fixed on the zig-zag as it climbed up the wall onto the windowsill. Maybe it wasn't him . . . maybe it was just some other kecleon . . . but what were the chances of some other kecleon turning up at my school? Then again, what were the chances of _Cam_ turning up here? He couldn't possibly have known where my school was. Did he even know that I went to school?

'Hey, what's _that_!?'

Everyone turned to the boy who was sitting closest to the window. He was pointing up at the zig-zag, his eyes wide with horror.

'Woah!' the girl behind him exclaimed, leaping out of her seat. 'What on earth!?'

'Calm down,' I said, shaking my head and getting to my feet. 'It's a kecleon. It's not gonna hurt you. Chill out, I'll get him down.'

'Stay away from there, Kit,' Miss Terres warned me, getting out of her seat. 'Kecleons can be dangerous. I'll call someone from the Pokémon Centre to come and get it.'

'Why waste the time?' I asked. 'He's not gonna hurt me, trust me.'

'Just like that ekans wasn't gonna hurt you?' one of the boys asked, and a few of the students laughed. I turned and glared at the boy who'd spoken. That incident with the ekans at camp had been stupid, but this was Cam . . . I knew he wouldn't try to hurt me.

'What's with Kit and kecleons anyway? Remember that wild kecleon she was like talking to at camp?'

I sighed, ignored them, and walked over to where the zig-zag was floating by the window. I held my arm up to it.

'Hey, come down,' I said softly. 'It's OK.'

'Kit, I mean it, stay away from there,' said Miss Terres, walking over to me.

'_Kit . . . I can't believe I found you_!' Cam's voice said happily, and then his body turned visible and I saw him looking down at me with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him and gestured to my arm. He paused, then crawled down and climbed onto my arm, and I pulled him down.

'Oh my goodness, she's letting it crawl on her! How gross!'

'Yeah, what if it's diseased or something, Kit!? Put it down!'

'You people are all so paranoid!' I exclaimed. 'There's nothing wrong with him! Maybe if you be a bit more friendly with wild pokémon instead of being scared of them, you'll realise there's nothing to worry about. Gosh!' I shook my head and turned to Miss Terres. 'Can I go release him outside?'

'Oh . . . yes, of course,' she nodded uncertainly. 'But be quick about it.'

'Yeah,' I turned and carried Cam out of the classroom. Once we were outside, I put him down on the ground and bent down to him. 'How on earth did you end up at my school, Cam?'

Cam paused, then spoke. '_I followed that boy here_.'

'Which boy?' I asked. 'Taylor?'

Cam nodded. '_I thought he might go back to where you live but he came here instead . . . I was so surprised to find you here_!'

'Well gee, I was pretty surprised to find you here too,' I said, shaking my head. 'So you followed Taylor- hang on a second, how did you know what I said!?'

Cam blinked at me, confused. '_Sorry, can you repeat that_?'

'How did you understand me?' I asked.

'_Oh_,' said Cam, and nodded to himself. '_I got Eustacia to teach me some things about understanding human language. It's actually not that hard once you get used to it, but I'm still learning. That's why I really wanted to see you, so that I could talk to you and try to learn a bit more_.'

'Eustacia taught you this?' I asked, and Cam nodded. I sighed. I didn't want to hear about that chansey helping Cam to understand me. I wanted to believe that she had no good in her, that she had set me up to be captured by Team Magma. But even though that theory seemed true enough to me, I still wasn't sure if it was. 'But she can't actually talk in human language. How did she teach you to understand it?'

'_She told me some things about the ways the language works, and then I went to that farm where that boy Taylor lives, and I listened to some of the humans there talking to each other_,' said Cam. '_The more I just listen to humans, the more I pick up on the language. It's a lot easier than I thought it would be_.'

I stared at him. So not only had Eustacia helped him, but _Taylor_ had helped him . . . sure he hadn't helped him directly or willingly, but he still had . . . two of the people who annoyed me more than anyone had been the ones who'd helped Cam to learn to understand me. That was nearly as bad as when Taylor's rapidash had saved us from the shedinjas. I hated it when I needed people's help, but more than anything I hated it when I needed help from someone I didn't like. I didn't want to owe favours to Eustacia _or_ Taylor.

'_We didn't end up going to see Eustacia_,' said Cam. '_Do you want to come with me to see her now? I told her about everything you did for me, and she said you can come and see her if you like, but she wants to talk to you_.'

Yeah, probably to ask me to repay her somehow for helping Cam to understand me. I sighed. At first I'd wanted to go and see her so that I could show everyone what a fake she was, but now that she'd helped him, Cam's trust in her was even stronger. What if he took her side instead of mine? After all, he still hardly knew me.

'_Kit_?' Cam asked. '_Do you want to come and see Eustacia with me_?'

I sighed. I couldn't just refuse to go, though, and I couldn't tell him why I didn't want to without telling him how much I didn't like the pokémon he seemed to idolise more than anything.

'All right,' I said. 'But I have to go back to class. Stay here, I'll be back in about half an hour. We'll go then.'

Cam paused. '_Stay here_?'

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'If someone sees you just turn invisible. I'm sure you'll be all right here. I'd go now but I'll get in trouble. So just stay here, I promise I'll be back.'

Cam nodded. '_All right. See you then_.'

'Yeah,' I said, getting up and giving him a wave as I headed back inside.

  
  


After class, I went and got Cam and began heading out to the Genesis Bushland. Since I normally walked home with Amanda, I had to lie and tell her that I'd just remembered I had to meet my father at his work that afternoon, so we couldn't walk home together. She seemed a little suspicious, but didn't question me. Once we were out of the city and heading down route seventy-two, Cam turned visible again. We talked to each other a bit, and it was great to have him understand me, even if I did have to speak slowly and clearly for him to really understand. I was shocked at how quickly he'd learned to understand the language . . . only a few days earlier, he hadn't understood a word I'd said. Then I reminded myself that my own understanding of the pokémon language had come abruptly as well. I'd always felt like I'd been able to get the gist of what pokémon were saying, but ever since I'd become a vulpix for the first time, I'd understood pokémon just as clearly as humans. Most of the time I didn't even notice that all I was hearing was the pokémon saying its name . . . I heard the words as if they were English. I wondered if it was the same for Cam, if he heard my words as if they were in his own language . . . if he heard all other pokémon in the same way too . . . or if it were a different situation for him. The more I thought about the connections between humans and pokémon, the less I understood . . ..

Cam and I entered the bushland, and he began leading me towards the Extant Cave. We made sure to steer clear of the nincada tree we'd encountered last time, and tried not to get too close to any of the other wild pokémon either in case I scared them. I was still convinced that wild pokémon were paranoid and needed to be taught that humans weren't as evil as they thought, but Cam didn't seem to want me to talk to any wild pokémon until we got to Eustacia. I had to keep reminding myself that they couldn't understand me anyway, and that nothing I said to them would make a difference as long as I was a human.

We soon came to the Extant Cave, which I hardly even recognised. I remembered that there was a large boulder covering the entrance, and I soon spotted it, but I couldn't see the two geodudes who guarded it anywhere.

'_Dale, Dena!_' Cam smiled cheerfully, and I blinked at him, wondering who he was talking to. '_I've brought someone to see Eustacia._' There was silence, and Cam titled his head uncertainly. '_Guys? What's the matter?_'

Still nothing.

'Uh, Cam . . .' I said uncertainly. 'Are they even here? I don't see them anywhere.'

'_Of course they're here, look_,' said Cam, and stepped towards the rocks on the side of the boulder. He poked one softly. '_Dale!_'

'_Cam, are you crazy!?_'

I nearly jumped in shock as the rock moved, pulling its arms out from the surrounding rocks and opening its eyes. Those geodudes were nearly as good at disguising themselves as Cam was! I blinked at this one as he glanced up at me and turned to Cam.

'_What do you think you're doing, man!? That's a _human_! You _know_ the rules, buddy._'

'_Of course, but Eustacia told me it was OK for me to bring Kit to see her._'

'_You've lost it, man. Eustacia would never allow a human to come and see her. I thought we could trust you, Cam! I know you kecleons can be a bit schizo, but I thought you were different._'

'Excuse me!?' I exclaimed. 'What's that supposed to mean? "A bit schizo"? Don't be so obnoxious! You know, he can't help it that his ability-'

'_Kit!_' Cam cut me off. '_He can't understand you. There's no point in arguing with him._'

'Well then you tell him for me,' I said. 'Tell him he's a stupid jerk and just 'cause _his_ ability doesn't have side effects doesn't mean he can-'

'_Kit, please, calm down,_' said Cam with a sigh. He was about to go on, when another voice cut in first.

'_Too late to calm down, it's time for you to get worried all over again, 'cause you've just been spotted._'

Cam and I spun around quickly to see who had spoken. I was sure I recognised that voice . . . high-pitched, almost like a yelp . . . yet so dark and intimidating at the same time. It took me a moment to find the owner of the voice, because I didn't expect it to be so small . . . but finally I spotted the small grey puppy glaring up at me with round yellow eyes, barring her teeth.

'No way!' I exclaimed, taking a step back. 'Poochyena!'

'_That's right,_' she growled. '_You thought you were sooo clever when your little bug friends tied us up, but now you're gonna see that _no one_ outsmarts Team Magma. You were stupid enough to think we wouldn't track you down, completely forgetting you were on a _school_ camp so it really wasn't hard to find out what city you came from . . .._'

'Oh, I knew you'd try to track me down, I just didn't think you'd be smart enough to succeed,' I shrugged. I had to keep my cool. I knew that Poochyena was tough, and that if Leon was with her we'd be in even bigger trouble, but if I just waited for the right moment, I could figure a way out of this. 'Guess you're not as stupid as I thought.'

'_Think whatever you want, Team Magma hires no idiots,_' said Poochyena. '_And it doesn't hire any weaklings either, as you're about to see!_'

With that, she threw her head back and howled, then growled at me with renewed strength, and ran at me.

'_Kit you run for it!_' said Cam, stepping out in front of me. '_I'll hold her off!_'

'No way, Cam!' I exclaimed. 'I can't let you fight! You might Colour Change again and . . . and . . ..'

'_It doesn't matter!_' said Cam. '_If I change I'll go back to normal but if they catch you you might not escape!_'

'_Of course she won't escape, and neither will you, so why don't you both give up now?_' Poochyena growled. She was practically upon us, so I had to act fast. I bent down and grabbed Cam, pulling him up into my arms and carrying him as I turned and ran.

'_Kit!_' Cam exclaimed. '_Put me down! If she catches up to you she'll get both of us but if I try to fight her at least you can escape!_'

'I'm not gonna just let her attack you!' I said as I ran on, hearing Poochyena right behind me. 'If I let you fight you could-'

I felt something slam into my back, and I stumbled over, dropping Cam and falling flat on my face. I moaned as I felt Poochyena standing on my back and heard her cackle.

'_There's no way you can escape!_' she laughed. I ground my teeth and went to throw her off me, but then I remembered Cam, and I looked up quickly. The first thing I spotted as not Cam, but a different lizard . . . larger, with dark red scales, long claws and a menacing glare.

'You're going to pay for what you did to me,' Leon snarled. 'All those wild pokémon should be ashamed to have helped a pathetic human, but this time you're on your own. Let's see you try to stand up to a real pokémon this time!' He turned to Poochyena. 'Outta my way, mut. I'll handle her myself.'

'_Jeez . . ._' Poochyena muttered, but did as he said and got off my back. I was shocked that Poochyena took orders from Leon, who not only wasn't her master, but wasn't even a human . . . but I forced myself not to think about it. There were more important things to worry about, like what Leon was going to do with me, and whether I could escape. I went to pull myself up, but just as I did so, Leon spun around and slapped me in the face with his tail. Pain shot through me, and I instinctively put a hand to my face as I fell back down. I couldn't believe how powerless I was . . . there was nothing I could do against a charmeleon.

'Stay down!' Leon spat as he took a step closer to me. 'Stay down in the dirt where you belong, you pathetic creature!'

'You're the pathetic one!' I growled at him.

'Oh?' he asked mockingly, and slammed his foot down on my head, grinding my face into the dirt. I reached my hands up and tried to push him away, but not even all of my strength could budge him. 'You dare call me pathetic? You, a weak and useless human? It's clear to anyone that pokémon are the superiors. You humans are just afraid of us, because you know that we're the ones with the power and you're the ones with nothing. You take up your so-called "training" to brainwash us into serving you because you're terrified of the power we hold.'

'You have no idea,' I growled. 'Humans train pokémon to help them learn to use their powers!'

'Silence!' Leon snarled, and pushed down harder on my head. He crushed my face against the ground, and I felt my breathing hinder as the dirt blocked off my air.

'_Leave her alone!_' Cam's voice cried out, and I tried to look up to see him, but it was useless under Leon's weight. I heard movement, and the pressure on my head ease up slightly as Leon growled.

'Any pokémon who associates with humans is just as pitiful as the humans themselves!' Leon snarled.

'_But you associate with those trainers of yours . . ._' said Cam.

'How dare you call those two idiots my trainers!' Leon yelled. 'I have no trainer, I am owned by _no one_! You'll pay for that comment!'

I felt him move his foot off my head, and I quickly looked up to see him turning to Cam angrily. The kecleon took a few steps back, but put his arms up in a battle pose nonetheless.

'Cam, don't!' I cried, and scrambled to my feet. 'Don't fight him, it's not worth it!'

'It's worth it for me to see a pathetic little wimp get what he deserves,' snarled Leon, advancing on Cam.

'_Kit, run for it!_' said Cam. '_Escape while you can!_'

'She won't get a chance,' growled Leon. 'I'll finish you off in one hit then do the same to her.'

He opened his mouth, and I saw sparks of fire fly out, and then a ball of flames came to life in his jaws. I stared into the fire and all I could see were the fiery red scales on Cam's body the last time he had been hit by that attack . . . the fierce look in Cam's eyes, the brutal way he'd battled . . ..

'No!' I exclaimed, and without a second thought, threw myself in between Leon and Cam. As Leon unleashed the Ember attack, I barely even felt it hit me, hardly noticed it spread over my body until I was covered in flames. For the first time, I scarcely felt the heat rise in my body until it seemed to melt, and I fell to the ground as I changed shape, growing smaller, hotter, and more determined than ever.


	14. Chapter 13: A Shock Saviour

**Chapter Thirteen - A Shock Saviour**

  
  


Leon snarled down at my new form contemptibly, and I took a deep breath as I steadied myself on my four legs. I had to stay calm and adjust as quickly as I could. The transformation had taken a lot of energy out of me, but as a vulpix I may have had some chance at fighting him off. I swallowed, and glared at the charmeleon.

'You disgust me,' he growled. 'How dare you insult pokémon by faking yourself as one! You're nothing but a pathetic human and you know it!'

'_That's not true!_' Cam cut in. '_Kit is just as much of a pokémon as we are!_'

'_You_ have no right to comment!' Leon snapped. 'You don't deserve to be a pokémon any more than she does! How dare you associate yourself with me by classing us both as the same!'

'_The only thing that makes you so different from Cam is that you're a stuck-up jerk and he's actually friendly!_' I said.

'And he should be ashamed of being friendly with humans! No one who makes friends with humans deserves to call himself a pokémon!'

'Leon, what are you doing? Stop wasting time arguing with her and catch her!'

I looked up to see Rose rushing towards us, Adrian and Poochyena close behind. Poochyena must have gone and brought them here . . . I hadn't even noticed her leaving. I had to learn to be more observant. Now I was in even more trouble than before.

'Don't tell me what to do!' Leon snapped. 'I know exactly what I'm doing and this stupid girl will _not_ escape this time!'

He swiped at me with his claws, but I quickly leapt back and managed to dodge his attack. Even I was shocked at my speed, but I didn't stop to think about it. If my pokémon body was more agile than my human body then I had to use it to my advantage.

'Hmph,' muttered Leon. 'Think you're speedy, do you? Vulpixes may be fast but nowhere near as fast as _I_ am and besides, there's no way you can emulate a _real_ vulpix's speed!'

I glared at him. '_And who says I'm not a real vulpix?_'

'No human is a pokémon!' Leon growled, and lunged at me. This time he was too quick for me, and knocked me down. Holding me down with one arm, he raised the other in the air to swipe at me. I took one look at his claws and flinched.

'_Leave her alone!_' Cam cried, and charged at Leon. He slammed into the charmeleon, but his small weight failed to move the larger pokémon. Leon turned to him with a growl.

'Get outta my way!' He slapped his arm into Cam's face and sent him stumbling back.

'_Cam!_' I exclaimed.

'Poochyena, you take care of the kecleon! If it keeps interfering Leon might not be able to win!' Adrian called.

'You too, Numel!' Rose said, throwing her pokéball and releasing Numel.

'Idiots, I don't need any help!' Leon growled. 'I can handle this on my own!'

Poochyena looked at Leon for a moment, then turned to Adrian for instruction. The man sighed, shaking his head.

'Poochyena, he says he can handle it but he can't,' he told his pokémon. 'Please, just go and stop the kecleon. Leon will be mad but he'll be even more mad if he loses.'

'_Right,_' Poochyena nodded, and ran towards us.

'Numel, you go too!' Rose yelled.

Numel yawned. '_I think Poochyena can do it on her own . . .._'

'Numel, don't you dare ignore me! Do as I tell you!'

I turned my attention away from Numel to where Poochyena was running at Cam. I tried furiously to recall what I'd learnt about pokémon in biology . . .. Kecleons were normal-type pokémon . . . and apparently that Colour Change ability made them change into the type of the attack that was used against them . . . so as long as Cam was only hit by normal-type attacks, Colour Change wouldn't take effect, right? But did Poochyena only know normal-type attacks? Probably not . . . I began frantically wishing I knew more about pokémon battles. I knew what types most pokémon were but I had no idea what types their attacks were . . . and I didn't know what attacks each pokémon could use, either.

I couldn't risk it. Even if Poochyena _did_ use a normal-type attack, she was still much stronger than Cam, and she would still hurt him. Even if he didn't Colour Change, the attack would still deal damage to him . . . I couldn't just lie there and watch that happen.

'Numel, I gave you an order, now do it!'

'Shut up!' Leon snapped. 'I don't need that buffoon's help! I can handle this on my own!'

While Leon's attention was diverted to Rose, I quickly leapt up, managing to break free of his hold. He immediately snarled and turned back to me, but before he could grab me again, I leapt in front of Cam.

'_Kit, what are you doing!?_' Cam exclaimed. '_Stop this!_'

'_I can't let her attack you!_' I told him. '_I don't want you to have to Colour Change again and besides, she could really hurt you!_'

'_Problem solved, I just hurt you instead!_' Poochyena laughed as she lowered her head and slammed it into me, sending me flying into the air and crashing down a few metres away. I moaned as the impact shot through my body, but I shakily forced myself back onto my feet.

'_Kit, are you OK?_' Cam cried, rushing over to me.

'_I'm fine,_' I lied, taking a deep breath and stepping forward. I'd seen pokémon battles before, and I'd always been shocked at how determined the pokémon could be. They'd get hit by powerful attacks and just stand right back up and continue to battle. I'd always been amazed by their determination, but it wasn't until now that I realised just how determined they all must be. That attack had really hurt, and it had only been from a little poochyena . . . I could hardly even imagine the same attack dealt by a mightyena, or something even stronger . . ..

'_Oh look, she's coming back for more,_' grinned Poochyena as I approached her. '_Why don't you just give up now? You don't even know how to battle, I doubt you know any attacks, so what hope do you ever have of winning?_'

'_I don't just give up,_' I glared at her. '_And I don't let something just defeat me._'

'_Well, that's a shame, because whether you let it happen or not, it's unavoidable,_' she smiled, and ran at me again. I jumped to the side and narrowly dodged her attack, but then she spun around and leapt into the air, pouncing right down on me and knocking me to the ground.

Kit, what are you doing? I asked myself. Dodging their attacks isn't going to help you. You can't just stay on the defensive, you've got to fight back! I narrowed my eyes and ground my teeth together, pushing myself up with all my strength and knocking Poochyena off my back.

'You're pathetic!' Leon hissed. 'If you'd let me handle things I would have finished her off by now! Get outta my way!'

He charged over to me, swiping his arm out and pushing Poochyena out of the way. I took a step back as he approached me. I may have had some kind of a chance against Poochyena, but I wasn't sure if I could do anything against Leon . . ..

'That stupid mut is useless, she should be thrown out of the operation!' Leon growled. 'I can handle this myself!'

'_Oh come on, like you're gonna prove anything by beating a little vulpix. Any charmeleon can beat an unevolved pokémon like _that_._'

'What was that!?' Leon snapped. Confused, I looked around to see who had spoken . . . it hadn't been Poochyena . . . it certainly hadn't been Numel . . ..

'_Kit, look!_' Cam exclaimed. I turned to him to see him to see his small eyes open wide with shock as he stared at something behind me. I swallowed. So that voice had come from behind me . . . some other pokémon must have heard the commotion and come to see what was happening. But was it on my side or Team Magma's? It sure hadn't sounded like it was too impressed with me, but at the same time, it had undermined Leon, so it couldn't be all bad, right?

Keeping one eye carefully on Leon, I turned cautiously behind me to see who was there. As soon as my eyes fell on the pokémon, I did a double take, forgetting Leon and turning my full attention to the figure behind me. It stood on four slim legs, was covered in long, creamy white fur, with an especially long and beautiful length of hair on its head . . . but what stood out the most was its flurry of bushy tails . . . I didn't even have to count them before I knew how many there were.

'_No way!_' I exclaimed. '_A ninetales!_'

The ninetales smiled. '_Yeah, there's no way I'm letting this guy pick on a vulpix._' He moved forward, walking in front of Cam and I as we stared at him in shock. Vulpixes and ninetales weren't native to Aruto, they'd only been brought here by pokémon trainers . . . I knew that due to escapes and releases they had begun breeding in the wild, but there still weren't a huge number of them around, and I hadn't known that there were any so close to Spectrum City. I suddenly wanted to talk to the ninetales, to ask him so much . . . where he lived, if there were any others around here, whether I could meet them . . .. I wasn't sure if wild vulpixes would know any more about my strange ability than I did, but I was still overcome with a desire to meet them. I thought I'd learnt a lot about pokémon by becoming a vulpix . . . but I'd never actually met another vulpix or ninetales before. Perhaps I had learnt about pokémon, but I'd learnt about others, and not about the one that I actually was . . ..

'How pathetic,' muttered Leon, and his voice snapped me back to reality. I couldn't worry about meeting other vulpixes and ninetales right now - if we didn't get away from Team Magma, I'd probably never get to see one for the rest of my life! 'If you want to protect your fellow species then you're wasting your time, she's not even a real vulpix!'

The ninetales just laughed. '_Then you sure have a strange definition of "real". Now why don't you stop picking on someone who's weaker than you and try battling _me_ instead?_'

'You're not who we're after, _she_ is!' Leon snapped. 'Now get out of my way!'

He moved towards me, but the ninetales stepped in front of me, cutting off his path.

'_Now why would you want a weak little vulpix?_' he asked. '_Surely a ninetales would be much more worth your while. You know, we're not native to Aruto. You could probably sell me for a pretty high price to some pokémon trainer._'

'I don't care about money, I only want to show that stupid fake what a _real_ pokémon fights like!' Leon snarled.

'_I think you're just scared,_' the ninetales grinned.

'What was that!?' Leon demanded.

'_You're scared,_' smiled the ninetales. '_You pick on weaker pokémon to boost your ego but you could never defeat an evolved pokémon like me._'

'You think so, do you!?' Leon challenged him. 'I'll show you!'

He swiped at the ninetales, but he dodged the attack so quickly I barely even saw him move.

'_Bit slow there, aren't you?_' he taunted.

Leon growled. 'You'll be the one who's slow when I pound you into the ground!' He charged at the ninetales.

'Leon, stop!' Adrian called. 'I don't know where that thing came from, but we're not after it! Get that vulpix!'

'Don't you dare command me!' Leon yelled, and turned and spat a ball of flames at Adrian. The man ducked and avoided the bulk of the attack, but a few of the flames hit the hood of his uniform. He frantically patted them out with his gloves, then turned to his pokémon.

'Poochyena, _you_ stop that vulpix!' he called. 'We can't afford to mess this up again!'

'_I'm on it!_' Poochyena nodded, and ran towards me.

'_Oh no you don't!_' the ninetales darted in front of me. Poochyena came to a stop and looked up at the larger pokémon worriedly. The ninetales grinned, then turned to me. '_You and the kecleon get out of here. I can handle these guys easily._'

'_But . . . I . . ._' I stumbled. I hardly ever felt lost for words, but my head was spinning. I knew it was the perfect opportunity for Cam and I to escape, and this ninetales really _did_ look like he could handle things . . . but it was also the only opportunity I'd ever had to speak to a ninetales . . . if Cam and I escaped, what if I never saw the ninetales again? I needed to talk to him, I needed to find out where he was from, whether I could find any others like him . . . I couldn't just run away now. I might never get the opportunity to speak to another member of my species . . ..

'_Just do it!_' he hissed. '_You _know_ you're no match for these guys. I've been battling all my life, whereas _you_ look like you've never even _seen_ a battle before. Just get out of here, if you can even run fast enough, that is._'

I was still so shocked and confused that I didn't even feel insulted. I had to escape . . . if Team Magma caught me it would be the end of everything . . . but how could I just leave this ninetales? I might never see him or any other vulpix or ninetales again . . ..

'_Kit, come on!_' Cam urged. '_We've got to escape! Come on!_'

He grabbed my leg and tried to drag me away.

'_But . . ._' I breathed.

'_Just do what he says, unless you want to be charmeleon dinner,_' said the ninetales.

'_He's right, we've gotta get away while we still can!_' said Cam. I sighed, took a last look at the ninetales, then turned and ran.

  
  


Half an hour later, I was lying on my side in a small cave, staring at the wall. Cam was by the entrance of the cave, looking out for any sign of Team Magma or anyone else. We had managed to escape easily. Poochyena had tried to follow us but the ninetales had been too quick and just blocked her off. So there we were, safe, at least for now . . . but I had no idea where that ninetales had come from or where he would go.

'_Kit . . . what's the matter?_' Cam sighed, turning away from the cave entrance to come and sit down in front of me. '_We're safe now._'

'_That was a ninetales, Cam,_' I sighed.

Cam paused. '_I guess you're worried about him._'

'_No, he seemed way stronger than even Leon,_' I said. '_I'm pretty sure he'll be OK. It's just that . . . I've never even _met_ another vulpix or ninetales before. This is only the third time I've become a vulpix. The first time was when you found me here in the Genesis Bushland and the second time was at camp when I found _you_. I still have no idea why I can become a vulpix and even though he probably wouldn't know any more than I do, I still wanted to talk to him and find out where all the other vulpixes and ninetales live . . .._'

'_Oh, I see,_' said Cam. '_I guess you want to learn a bit more about them._'

'_I guess, yeah,_' I sighed.

'_Well, I do know that there are some wild-_' he cut himself off. '_Wait here, there's something outside._'

He turned himself invisible, and I watched the red zig-zag move back to the entrance of the cave. It stood there for a moment, then Cam gasped and turned himself visible again.

'_Kit, you won't believe it!_' he exclaimed.

'_What?_' I asked, uninterested. '_Team Magma's here to take me away?_'

'_Of course not, it's him!_' said Cam excitedly. He diverted his voice to outside the cave. '_Hey! We're in here!_'

'_I see you, I see you, calm down._'

Recognising the voice, I sat up quickly and spotted the ninetales coming towards us. He moved into the cave with us, folding his tails behind his back and sitting down.

'_Hey,_' he nodded to me.

'_How . . . how did you find us?_' I asked, bewildered.

'_Uh, it's called scent,_' he said, rolling his eyes.

'_Oh,_' I said, and swallowed. Even as a vulpix, I didn't really have much of an idea of how to trace things by scent, but I couldn't show my ignorance. I didn't want him to know that I wasn't an ordinary vulpix . . . at least not yet. '_Of course._'

'_Those guys were easy to handle,_' smiled the ninetales. '_The charmeleon thinks he's tough but he's all talk. He was just as easy as the poochyena and numel._'

'_You beat all three of them?_' I asked, staring at him.

'_Yeah, of course,_' he said. '_I've been training all my life, I'm a pretty tough battler. But enough about me. Who are you?_'

'_What do you mean, who am I?_' I asked.

He rolled his eyes. '_Well you could start with a name._'

'_Oh,_' I said. '_It's Kit._'

'_Kit?_' he asked, a smile curving on his face.

'_Yeah . . ._' I said. '_Something wrong with that?_'

'_Oh, no. It's just an interesting name. I'm Russell by the way. And how about you?_' he turned to Cam.

'_Cam,_' said Cam.

'_Good, well now that the introductions are over, I've got a few questions to ask you,_' said Russell, turning back to me.

'_I've got plenty to ask you too,_' I said.

Russell smiled. '_Like who the heck am I, where am I from, that kind of thing?_'

I blinked. '_Well . . . yeah._'

'_I figured, 'cause that's exactly what I wanted to ask you,_' Russell smiled. '_So . . . who first?_'

'_You,_' I said. I had no idea what I was going to say about where I was from; I couldn't explain to him that I was really a human. There was no way he'd believe me and besides, I had to be careful about who found out about this. I was pretty sure I could trust him, after he'd saved Cam and me from Team Magma, but I still had to be wary of him. While he was telling me where he was from, I had to come up with something to say to him.

'_Well to tell you the truth, I don't really know where I'm from,_' he said with a sigh. '_I live by myself here in the Genesis Bushland. I don't remember anything about my family or why I'm not with them anymore . . . that's why I'm curious about you. I've never seen any other ninetales or vulpixes before . . . at least as far as I can remember. So tell me, what's your story? Do _you_ know of any other ninetales or vulpixes, 'cause if you do, I'd really like to meet them._'

I sighed, disappointed. After all that hope I'd had of finding more vulpixes or ninetales to talk to, he didn't know where any were either.

'_Actually, I was hoping you'd know of others,_' I said. '_'Cause I really want to meet them too._'

'_What, so you don't know of any others at all?_' he asked, and I shook my head. '_What about your family? You must know where they are, right?_'

'_Um . . ._' I said, and gulped. '_Well, no, actually._' I didn't want to lie to him, but it was easier than telling him that my parents were humans. '_I don't know where my family is either._'

'_Do you mean it?_' he asked, and I nodded. '_You sure don't sound too convincing. You wouldn't be lying to me, would you?_'

'_Why would I be lying to you?_' I asked.

'_Maybe you've got something to hide,_' he said. I swallowed, and looked away.

'_Well I don't,_' I lied. '_You don't even know me, so don't go accusing me of lying when you've got nothing to back it up._'

'_Calm down, I'm just wondering,_' he shook his head. '_I've been waiting for so long to find another ninetales or vulpix and then I finally find one and she doesn't have a clue about where she's from either. It's just a bit disappointing, you know._'

'_That's exactly how I feel about it,_' I said. Russell was practically speaking my own thoughts.

'_There are some wild vulpixes in the Genesis Bushland,_' said Cam. Russell and I both turned to him quickly.

'_Where?_' Russell asked.

'_That's the thing - I don't know,_' said Cam with a sigh. '_They're really secretive._'

'_Well that's just great, isn't it?_' I muttered. '_I finally find a ninetales and he doesn't know where the others are and then-_'

I cut myself off as I felt a strange sensation seeping through my body. I felt a little dizzy, and . . . cold. I gulped, and looked down at my front paws. I held in a gasp as I saw them slowly, almost unnoticeably, changing shape. My fur began to thin out, and I could feel my whole body begin to grow. Although I could tell what was happening, it all felt so foreign. The other two times I'd been a vulpix, I had changed back while passed out . . . I'd never actually been conscious while it happened. But it was obvious to me what was happening . . . it was like becoming a vulpix in reverse . . . my inner heat was cooling off, my body was relaxing, expanding back into its familiar state.

I gulped as I looked back at Russell. Cam seeing this happen was one thing - he already knew about my transformation - but I was so scared about what Russell's reaction would be. He had been without contact with other vulpixes and ninetales for as long as he could remember, and then when he'd finally met one she had turned out to be a human . . . not a vulpix at all, but just, as Leon had said, a fake. Surely he would hate me, be angry that I had deceived him . . . never want to associate with a fake like me again. I would have ruined all his hopes of finding another of his kind, and in doing so, I'd have ruined all of mine too.

I couldn't let it happen. That was all there was to it. Perhaps if we'd known each other a bit longer, Russell may have been able to understand . . . but he'd only just met me. He would be afraid, and crushed . . . but I wouldn't do that to him. I wouldn't. So I got to my feet, turned, and ran out of the cave without another word.

'_Kit!_' Cam exclaimed. '_What are you doing!?_'

I forced myself to ignore him, and kept running. I had to get as far away as I could before I turned completely back into a human again. If Russell saw it happen . . . I could lose my only chance at contact with a wild ninetales, or any ninetales, for that matter.

As I ran, I felt my body changing more rapidly. My fur thinned out into short hairs, my tails shrunk and disappeared, my snout drew in, my ears pulled down to the sides of my face. Then I stumbled over as I realised that I was trying to run on long, human arms and legs, rather than the short and even legs of a vulpix. As I pulled myself up, I glanced over my body and saw that I was human again. My energy drained, I dragged myself over to a tree and leant against it, taking a few deep breaths.

'_Kit!_'

I turned to see Cam running up to me. Had he followed me all the way? With a gasp, I looked around frantically for Russell, but he was nowhere in sight.

'_Kit, are you OK?_' Cam asked worriedly, walking over to me.

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'I'm fine now.'

'_Russell told me to leave you, but I couldn't just let you run off like that . . ._' said Cam. I blinked at him. Why would Russell tell him to leave me? I gulped, hoping the ninetales hadn't noticed anything unusual about me.

'Thanks,' I said. 'Sorry I keep running off like that but I just . . . I just get worried about what people will think if they find out about me. I know you understand, but I've got Team Magma after me because of it, and those geodudes have now got something against you for being my friend, and . . . I mean, a few good things have come from this but when you compare them to the bad things . . . I'm really starting to wish it had never happened.' I shook my head.

'_I'm sorry,_' said Cam quietly. '_I didn't realise how hard it is for you._'

'I wish I could just tell everyone but I know they'd all hate me for it,' I said. 'So I have to keep lying to people. I lied to Amanda about where I was going today, I lied to Russell about my family . . . I practically don't even see truth as an option anymore.' I sighed. 'And I'm gonna have to go home now before it's too late and I have to lie to my parents too. I know I keep promising I'll go see Eustacia with you but I can't today . . . I've gotta get home.'

'_That's all right,_' said Cam. '_It didn't look like Dale was going to let us in anyway. I'll have to get Eustacia to explain it to them._'

I paused, thinking for a moment. The geodudes hadn't let us into the cave, so we'd stood there arguing with them . . . then Team Magma had shown up. If Eustacia really wanted me to go and see her, wouldn't she have told Dale and Dena to let me in? Unless, of course, she purposely hadn't told them, so that we'd be stalled outside the cave, and Team Magma could ambush us . . ..

'Cam,' I said. 'About that chansey . . ..'

Cam blinked. '_What?_'

I hesitated, and as I looked down at his face . . . those tiny black eyes, that wide mouth, that large head tilted to the side . . . I saw an innocence and a loyalty that I couldn't bear to break. Whether my theory about Eustacia working with Team Magma was true, I was sure that Cam had never even considered it. He looked up to that chansey in awe and respect, and despite how sure I was that her kindness was a mask, I wasn't sure I could tell Cam that. I had to confront her myself, and wait until I had proof before drawing Cam into it.

'I'll go and see her tomorrow if you like,' I said.

Cam's uncertain expression lightened up, and he nodded. '_OK!_'

'I'll meet you at the Extant Cave,' I said. 'It's probably not a good idea for you to show up at my school again, so I'll come here afterwards.'

Cam nodded again. '_All right._'

'OK, I'll see you then,' I said, getting to my feet. I paused. 'If you see Russell, tell him I'm sorry I ran off like that, and I'd really like to see him again.'

'_I will,_' said Cam. I gave him a thankful smile. Although the chances of running into that one particular wild pokémon were pretty slim, I was sure, somehow, that I would see Russell again soon.


	15. Chapter 14: Out of Hiding

**Chapter Fourteen - Out of Hiding**

  
  


'Hey kid!'

I moaned as I heard Taylor's voice mockingly greet me, and turned around to see him walking towards me, that stupid cocky grin on his face. I'd hoped to be able to make it to the Genesis Bushland without being seen, but I should have known that would be impossible . . . Taylor lived right next to the bushland, he would be walking the same way I was.

'Where are you off to?' he asked as he walked up beside me. I quickened my pace, but of course he did too, keeping himself right next to me. 'You know, you live in the other direction.'

'I am aware of where I live, thank you very much,' I muttered.

'You're welcome,' he smiled. 'So . . . you didn't answer my question. Where are you going? To visit your kecleon friend?'

I looked up at him with a glare, but of course all he did was keep grinning.

'His name's Cam, right?' Taylor asked. I looked at him uncertainly, then turned away. He must have heard me call Cam by his name once . . . great, now he thought I was some weirdo who gave names to wild pokémon.

'Does it matter?' I asked.

'Well gee, that was nice, asking if your friend's name even matters.'

'And you're one to talk. When have you ever even called me by my name?' I muttered.

'When have you ever been my friend?'

'Never have, never will.'

'Well there you go, I don't need to bother calling you by your name, kid. Course, my grandma reckons we were friends when we were little.'

'Hmph. My parents said something about that too. But I sure don't remember it.'

'Me neither. They probably just made it up to cheese us off. I mean, imagine you being nice to me! That'll happen when grumpigs fly. Course, there was that time when you and Cam - or whatever you'd prefer I called him - were being attacked by shedinjas and I saved you both. You told me how great I was . . . that was a laugh.'

'Only 'cause I didn't know it was you,' I muttered.

'See, that's the thing,' said Taylor. 'Had you known it was me, would I have gotten a thanks? I _did_ save your hides, you know. But the moment you found out it was me, that suddenly didn't matter anymore. It's like you've got a split personality. The kid who's polite, and the kid who's got a grudge against me.'

'Like it would have been any different if it had been the other way around,' I said. 'You wouldn't ever have thanked me if I'd saved you.'

Taylor laughed. 'I'll tell you how it would've been different. I wouldn't have needed your help in the first place and even if I _had_ there'd have been nothing you could do. You're a weakling, kid. No little shrimp like you could do a thing to help me.'

'Oh yeah!?' I demanded. 'I could do plenty to help you if I wanted, but if I ever see you in trouble then tough luck 'cause I'll have better things to do than help you out.'

'See, that's where you and me are different,' said Taylor. 'I saw you in trouble and I helped you out, all the while knowing how much you hate me. But if I were in trouble you wouldn't help me out. Such a shame.'

'You only did it to act like a hero,' I said. 'I could have escaped from those shedinjas easily, but you had to jump in and defeat them like the show-off you are. If I'd been in any real danger you wouldn't have done a thing.'

'Wait, we're still talking about the shedinja thing?' Taylor asked.

I rolled my eyes. 'Well done genius. What other time would I have been talking about?'

Taylor laughed. 'Oh, don't worry. I didn't expect you to have figured it out yet. It's OK, not all of us can be as smart as I am.'

'What the heck are you talking about?' I asked.

He laughed again. 'Don't worry. Just a bit of advice, you should try to figure out some stability in your personality, 'cause you are gonna look like _such_ a fool one of these days.'

'Whatever. Your stupid intimidation isn't gonna work on me. You try to act all superior but you don't know a thing about me.'

Another laugh. I glared at him. I was getting so sick of this cockiness. 'Oh, that's a good one, kid. I don't know a thing about you? Yep. Sure. Believe what you want to. I love watching your ignorance. Well, I'm off. Have fun visiting your kecleon friend.'

'Have fun being a moron.'

'Will do! Later, kid.'

He gave me a wave and a smile filled with so much mock friendliness that it made me even more angry than I already was. Taylor being a jerk was bad enough, but when he pretended to be friendly like that it made my blood boil. I glared after him as he turned a corner and left my sight. I was pretty sure that the way I was going would lead to his farm quicker than the way he'd turned. He must have gotten sick of me and just wanted to get away. He always acted like he was in control, but I knew that sometimes I annoyed him as much as he annoyed me, and that gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. If he was going to be a jerk to me, he deserved to be treated the same way.

Relieved to have Taylor out of my way, I headed on towards the Genesis Bushland. The trip there seemed to get longer every time, and I began to wonder how Taylor handled it every day. Maybe that was why he stayed with his grandmother so often. I'd much rather take the short trip from my apartment building to school than the long hike from Taylor's farm. I had to remind myself that at least this way I was getting some exercise. If I were ever to stand a chance against Team Magma again, I'd need to be a better battler, and to be a better battler, I'd need to be fit. I wouldn't always have Tom's friends or Russell to help me out.

Russell. My thoughts turned back to the ninetales. Since I'd run off the day before, I'd hardly even thought about him. Now I felt myself longing to see him again. Although he hadn't known of any other vulpixes or ninetales, he had still been one himself. Even though he hadn't been able to show me where any others of our kind lived, perhaps we could have looked for them together. And perhaps he could have helped me with a few things . . . taught me a few vulpix battle moves, maybe. He was obviously a skilled battler if he'd managed to defeat Team Magma's three pokémon . . . gosh, anyone who could beat Leon must have been strong! I had to find him again. I would find him again.

I was surprised at my confidence. I wasn't _hoping _to see him again; I was determined that I _would_ see him again. I couldn't explain why, but some part of me seemed to know where to find him. Perhaps Cam had been right when he'd said that even as a human, I was still a vulpix. And perhaps my senses as a vulpix somehow connected me to that ninetales, somehow told me where he was, and where we would meet again. Perhaps that was the reason, and perhaps it wasn't, but there was definitely something connecting me to that ninetales.

I entered the Genesis Bushland, and began heading to where the Extant Cave was. The large bushland, with all its identical trees and plants, and its lack of human-made paths, was quite confusing to navigate. Fortunately for me, I had a pretty good sense of direction. I hadn't been able to remember the way after the first time I'd become a vulpix, but after Cam had led me there the day before, I was pretty sure I could get back there on my own. As I headed onwards through the bushland, I noticed all the wild pokémon ducking out of my sight . . . mainly shy oddishes, but even a few stronger pokémon too . . . a pinsir, a vibrava, a weepinbell. It made me feel strangely powerful to have wild pokémon afraid of me, but moreso it made me feel sad. As a vulpix, they would have understood me, been friendly to me, perhaps even come out to greet me. But as a human, they hid form me. What was it that was so different about humans and pokémon that made them afraid of us? Was it really that they were worried we might capture them? Spectrum City didn't have many pokémon trainers; it had a very small Pokémon Centre, but not all that many trainers stopped there, from what I'd heard. The city was too far away from any gyms or contest houses to really be worth coming to. So hardly any trainers would pass through the Genesis Bushland. Most of the wild pokémon who lived there probably hadn't even seen a pokémon trainer before.

I heard something rustling in the bushes behind me, and I quickly turned to see what it had been. But I saw nothing. I swallowed uneasily. It had probably just been a wild pokémon . . . but after Team Magma had shown up unexpectedly yesterday, I had to be careful. They were probably still nearby, and although their pokémon would be weak after being defeated by Russell, I'd still be in trouble if they found me.

Keeping my senses keen, I continued onwards, letting myself forget about the noise and go back to what I'd been thinking about. Rumours must have spread to the pokémon of the Genesis Bushland about pokémon trainers. After all, what was so bad about pokémon trainers anyway? As the rumours spread, they must have changed, and by the time they'd reached the Genesis Bushland, pokémon trainers had been made out to be fearful villains. The pokémon I'd met in the National Park hadn't been scared like the ones in the Genesis Bushland. Why was it that these pokémon were so afraid of us? Trainers weren't scary at all. They helped pokémon become stronger, they taught pokémon to use their special skills to their best potential . . . and wasn't that what pokémon wanted?

Movement behind me diverted my attention. I stopped and turned around slowly . . . but still there was nothing. Perhaps I was getting as paranoid as the wild pokémon. They were afraid of trainers, I was afraid of Team Magma. I was sure that Team Magma wouldn't follow me in the bushes; that didn't seem to be their style. But it was too risky to just assume that. I walked over to where I'd heard the sound come from, and brushed the plants aside. Nothing. Not even a weedle or a pikachu. I took a deep breath, shook my head, and kept on walking. I began wishing I had agreed to meet Cam at school after all. Although I never liked to rely on people, I knew I'd feel safer if I weren't alone. I couldn't expect Cam to protect me, and didn't want him to either, but at least having him there would have been so much better, even if he only told me I was being paranoid - I needed someone other than myself to tell me that before I believed it.

I heard another rustle in the bushes, and this time I spun around instantly. I thought I caught sight of a flash of white ducking down into the bushes, but I couldn't be sure. I tried to tell myself that it was just a wild pokémon hiding from me, but I couldn't help feeling like I was being followed. I gulped. I didn't want to admit it even to myself, but I was scared. I knew I had no chance against Team Magma without help . . . without Russell to fight them off for me. I felt so weak, so pathetic. I'd never been able to save myself or anyone else on my own, I'd always needed help . . . from Tom, from Russell . . . heck, even from _Taylor_ that one time . . .. I'd tried to act strong, and maybe I'd half succeeded in the acting part, but deep down I knew I was still weak. I was still just as pathetic as Leon always said I was, just as hopeless as Taylor always said I was. Of all people, why did _they_ have to be right about me?

I ground my teeth and stormed onwards. I would get stronger. I would. Maybe it would take time, but I would. I was sick of being weak, sick of being pathetic, sick of being myself. I wanted to be someone else. I wanted to be-

A screeching yelp cut off my thoughts and stopped me in my tracks. I knew that voice. That was . . . that was Russell! I drew in a gasp. He was in trouble, he was hurt! But what could I do to help? Me, Kit, the weak pathetic human, who he wouldn't even recognise in this form? How could _I_ help someone who was strong enough to beat three Team Magma pokémon?

It didn't matter. Whether I could do nothing or everything, I couldn't walk away from a friend in danger. He'd saved me once. The least I could do would be to at least try to help him. I nodded to myself, and ran in the direction the cry had come from.

I found Russell lying in the bushes only a few metres behind me. Wincing in pain, he was gnawing at his left front paw. Taking a closer look, I saw that what he was biting wasn't his foot itself, but something clasped around it. I gasped. It was a small metal trap, clenched together around his paw like sharp metal jaws. I couldn't even see how deep the trap's teeth had sunk into his skin, but judging from the blood that was covering nearly his entire paw, they must have been incredibly deep. Russell clenched the trap in his teeth, clawed at it with his right paw, but it was useless. No pokémon could escape a man-made trap like that one. I reached a hand out towards him.

'_Stay away!_' he hissed. '_I can get out myself!_'

I sighed. He wouldn't have been able to recognise me as a human, and there was no way I could explain to him who I was either; he wouldn't have been able to understand me. I sighed, wondering if I should have let him see me change into a human after all, but at the same time knowing it was too late. But even if he didn't know who I was, I had to help him somehow.

'It's OK,' I said softly, hoping that my tone might get through to him. I put a hand on the long hair between his ears and went to smooth it down comfortingly, but he pulled away before I could. I swallowed, reminding myself that he was a wild pokémon . . . how could a human be any comfort to him? I was lucky he wasn't trying to hurt me.

Russell took a deep breath and cringed, shutting his eyes tightly.

'_Go away,_' he breathed. '_Just leave me here. I can get out myself._'

'No you can't,' I said with a sigh. 'Only a human can release this trap. Now just stay still and I'll get you out.'

Russell sighed irritably and looked away, but stayed still when I bent down to inspect the trap. I soon found the lever that released it, and pulled it up. The trap snapped open, and Russell gasped, pulling his paw out. He put it down on the ground, then yelped and lifted it up again. He shook dizzily for a moment, then turned and ran away as fast as he could on three legs.

'Wait, Russell!' I called, and ran after him. 'I'll get you some help!'

I knew that he was much too big for me to lift, let alone carry to the Pokémon Centre. But if I at least found him somewhere to rest, I could go and call the centre and get someone to come out to him. It would take a long time for that wound to heal naturally, and who knew what could happen to him in that time . . . especially if Team Magma recognised him and wanted revenge.

Luckily, he wasn't running very fast. He seemed to be having trouble running on three legs, and the pain or the blood loss or just the shock seemed to be weakening him. He gradually slowed down, until I was only a metre or two behind him, and he collapsed.

'Russell!' I exclaimed, rushing over and bending down to him. He lay panting on the ground, exhausted. I reached a hand out and touched his head, but he used what strength he had left to pull away from me.

'_Go away,_' he breathed, but there was no energy left in him to be forceful. I sighed and looked over his weak body. It was like the complete opposite to when I'd met him the day before . . . instead of brave, heroic and strong . . . here he was defeated and weak. It saddened me to see such a strong warrior, much less one who had saved me, reduced to such a level, and not even through battle, but through one man-made trap.

As I watched the exhausted ninetales lie there weakly, I didn't even have time to think about how I'd help him, before I noticed something about his body. I blinked, I rubbed my eyes, I shook my head, until I was sure that I wasn't imagining things. Slowly, hardly noticeably, his body was changing . . . his hair seemed to creep back inside his skin, his tails seemed to shrink . . ..

I gasped. No! It couldn't be! It couldn't possibly, possibly be! It was impossible, it _had_ to be impossible!

It wasn't. I watched, my heart pounding, my mind racing, as the ninetales's body morphed out of proportion, and then back into the proportions of something different altogether, and I was no longer looking at a ninetales at all, but a human boy.

But not just any human boy. Tall, pale, with long, shaggy blonde hair . . ..

It was Taylor.


	16. Chapter 15: One of My Own Kind

**Chapter Fifteen - One of My Own Kind**

  
  


'No way!' I exclaimed, leaping to my feet. 'No way! NO WAY!'

Taylor winced as he looked up at me weakly, his breathing still heavy, his body still weak.

'No way! I can't believe this I can't believe this I can't believe this! Someone wake me up, for crying out loud, this has _got_ to be a dream! A nightmare! That's it, it's a freaking nightmare! This isn't real, this isn't real, wake me up, wake me up!'

'Will you just be quiet?' I heard Taylor breathe, and looked back down to see him pulling himself up and dragging his weak body over to a tree, leaning against it. 'It's not a dream. I . . . I can explain . . . well . . . well I can't, really . . . but I . . ..' He sighed. 'Just . . . just don't be afraid.'

'Afraid!?' I exclaimed. 'Freaked out, certain I'm hallucinating, but I'm not _afraid_! Gosh!'

'You're not afraid that I'm . . . that I'm a ninetales?' he asked.

'Don't be an idiot, what's so scary about that!?' I exclaimed. 'Don't go thinking you're anything special, you're not the _only_ one who can become a pokémon, you know! Remember that vulpix yesterday? The one being attacked by Team Magma? Yeah, well that was me.'

'I know.'

'You know!? Yeah right, you had no idea!'

'I knew,' he insisted. 'You're the one who was too stupid to figure out it was me.'

'Oh, is that right!?' I demanded. 'And _how_ exactly did you figure out that some random vulpix you met in the wild was the girl who lives in the apartment next to your grandmother!?'

'It wasn't that hard. Firstly, you understood my espeon friend, and I've never met another human who can understand pokémon before, so I knew something was up. Then I see you as a vulpix hanging around with that kecleon friend of yours. And _then_ when you're a vulpix you actually tell me your name is Kit. I knew that was too many coincidences.'

'Then don't go telling me I'm an idiot for not knowing it was you, 'cause _you_ told _me_ your name was "Russell"! You lied to me!'

He laughed weakly, shaking his head. 'I didn't lie to you. My name _is_ Russell, moron.'

I blinked at him, then it hit me, and I couldn't remember ever feeling so stupid. It had been staring me in the face all along. Taylor's full name was Russell Taylor. I'd become so used to calling him by his surname that I'd completely forgotten that his first name was Russell . . . and when he'd told me as a ninetales that that was his name, it just hadn't clicked. I felt so stupid, so clueless, so utterly outsmarted.

'That's not fair!' I exclaimed. 'You know I never call you that! No one ever calls you that! You gave me that name on purpose!'

'So what if I did?' he smiled. 'I'd figured out it was you. I wanted to see how long it took you to realise it was me. And if you hadn't seen me change just then, you still wouldn't have a clue.'

'Yeah right, I'd have figured it out! I'm not as stupid as you, and at least I didn't lie to keep you guessing.'

'I didn't lie,' he smiled. 'I told you my name.'

'Whatever,' I muttered. I glanced at his left hand, which was still covered in blood from the trap I'd saved him from. 'I guess we're even now.'

'Not quite,' he said. 'I saved you twice. Once from the shedinjas, once from Team Magma. You still owe me one. And when I saved you, you never even ended up with a scratch.' He looked down at his hand, and then - my expression fell as I felt sick to the stomach - he started to lick it.

'What the heck are you doing!?' I exclaimed, and covered my mouth with my hand in case I threw up.

'Eh?' he asked, looking at me uncertainly. 'Cleaning it up, of course.' He continued licking the wound, and I shuddered.

'You're disgusting!'

'Why?' he asked. ''Cause I'm a pokémon? You are too, you know.'

'I'm a human, Taylor,' I said, folding my arms across my chest.

'I never said you weren't,' he said. 'I just said you were a pokémon. Who says you can't be both? The rules of biology, sure, but by now if you're still trusting science then you're _really_ off track.'

'But you're not really a pokémon,' I said. 'You were born human. Your parents are human. You can't say you're really a pokémon.'

'Why not? Who says my parents have anything to do with who I am? Who says who my parents are anyway? My grandma's more of a parent to me than my father is.'

'That's got nothing to do with it. I don't care who you consider to be your parents. Biologically your mother and father are your parents, and you can't be a pokémon unless they are too.'

'And didn't I tell you that biology is rubbish? If you think everything about a person is inherited then you've got no idea.'

'But we're talking about _species_! You can't be a different species to your parents, it's just not possible!'

'Then you explain becoming a vulpix. Ignore what species you consider yourself to actually be. Explain to me how you can biologically change shape and become a vulpix. You can't explain it, can you? Know why? Because science means nothing. They can try all they like but there'll always be things that scientists can't explain. So stop just believing in every little scientific theory you get taught. Science means nothing.'

'Well if you can't explain it by science, then how can you explain it?'

Taylor smiled. 'Who said it has to be explained at all?'

'Me,' I said defiantly.

Taylor shook his head. 'Then you're wasting your time. Some things can't be explained. You've just gotta accept them.'

'Well some things can't be accepted so easily either! Like the fact that Russell, the only ninetales I've ever met, who was actually _nice_ to me, turned out to be you putting on an act!'

'Was I putting on an act? I told you kid, you're the one who puts on acts. You were in trouble, so I helped you out. You'd never have done the same for me.'

'Excuse me? Who was the one who just got you out of that trap?'

'You got Russell out of that trap. There's no way you would have done it if you'd known he and I were the same person.'

'But you _weren't_ the same person! As Russell you were nice to me, you were actually _friendly_ . . . I just . . . I just can't believe it was _you_ all along!'

Taylor raised an eyebrow suggestively. 'Sounds like you had a bit of a thing for Russell, eh?'

'Oh please, don't kid yourself,' I rolled my eyes. 'I just can't believe _you _were actually nice to me!'

'Why? 'Cause it doesn't fit into your mental file of who "Taylor" is? That's your problem, kid. When something's different to the way you've been sure it really is, you can't accept it. You've gotta learn to believe in the truth that's right in front of your eyes, and forget all your preconceived notions about the world. I'm Russell. You're a pokémon. Accept it.'

'Oh come on, you can't honestly tell me that when you first became a ninetales, you just accepted it without question.'

'What are you talking about? I've always been a ninetales.'

I blinked at him. 'You've always been able to become a pokémon?'

'Yeah . . .' he said, as if it were obvious. 'At least as far as I can remember. Haven't you?'

'I've only been a vulpix three times . . ..'

Taylor leant towards me, his eyes open wide. 'You're kidding, right?'

I shook my head. 'Do you remember that day at school when the sky went black, and it started raining, and-'

'And you ran off like a maniac? Yes.'

I ignored his comment and went on. 'Well that was the day I first became a vulpix. I ran here, to the Genesis Bushland, and in the sky Ho-Oh and Lugia were battling, and-'

'Woah, slow down, kid! You _saw_ Ho-Oh and Lugia!?'

'That's what I said. They were fighting, and . . . and Ho-Oh lost . . . and it burnt itself into ashes and then the ashes turned into a fire stone and I -'

'Ho-Oh was defeated by Lugia?'

'Yeah, and then I became a vulpix.'

'I don't care about when you became a vulpix, I care about what happened to Ho-Oh! You say Lugia beat her, and she burnt to ashes?' Taylor asked urgently. I nodded. 'You're sure you didn't imagine this?'

'I'm no idiot, Taylor,' I said. 'I know what I saw.'

'Do you have _any_ idea what this means!?'

I blinked at him. 'Wh . . . what are you talking about?'

'Moon has defeated Sun! This is going to bring about the dark age of pokémon!'

'Uhh . . . whatever. That's all very dramatic but -'

'Listen to me!' Taylor exclaimed, getting to his feet.

'Don't interrupt me,' I glared at him.

'No, for once in your life just be serious and listen to me! Haven't you heard the legends? The native Arutonians believed that the key to the world's balance was held by the interactions of day and night, governed by the gods Sun and Moon. But they predicted that one day Moon would overthrow Sun and the world would be plunged into darkness. Don't you see, kid? Sun and Moon are Ho-Oh and Lugia!'

'Wait a sec, Sun and Moon?' I asked. 'Don't tell me you actually believed that story when you went on your year nine camp?'

'Year nine camp?' Taylor asked. 'What's that got to do with anything?'

'Some camp instructor told us that stupid Sun and Moon legend when we were on camp,' I shrugged.

'You mean you'd never heard it before?' Taylor asked, shaking his head in bewilderment. 'I can't believe how stupid you are! For your information I've never gone on a school camp in my life. I've known that legend since -'

'Never gone on a school camp? Is that because you have no friends at school?'

Taylor sighed heavily, and actually went silent for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and looked down at me seriously.

'You try having friends at school when you have no idea when your pokémon side might take over and you find yourself having to run away so that no one sees it happen. When I first found out you were like me, I wanted to know how you were able to keep it a secret so well without having everyone think you were a weirdo. But now I realise you haven't experienced that yet, if it's only happened to you three times.'

I looked at him uncertainly. He didn't seem upset or annoyed, but he wasn't his usual cocky self either, and somehow that got to me even more than his taunting did. He wasn't joking around, he wasn't making fun of me, he was being serious. I couldn't remember ever seeing him like that before. I didn't want to admit it, but there was more to Taylor than I'd thought. Was that really why he was such a loner at school, why he always ate lunch by himself, why I never saw him with any friends? Was his ability to become a ninetales really the source of all that? I knew that I hadn't been able to control my own transformations, and that so far they had caused me some trouble; the first time, when I'd run out of school and Amanda hadn't known where I'd gone; the second time, when I'd gone off into the bushes at night and had gotten myself into trouble with Team Magma . . . I could hardly even imagine how much trouble my ability could cause me over time. I'd had to lie to my friends so many times already . . . as it went on, would they give up on me? Would I have to abandon my friends for the sake of my ability?

'It's not as bad as it sounds,' said Taylor, cutting off my thoughts. 'Actually, I'd never want it any other way. I may not have human friends but don't need them either. I've got more than enough pokémon friends to make up for it.'

I remembered the day Cam and I had turned up at Taylor's farm, and we'd seen him with that espeon. I'd noticed a friendship between them that had shocked me because of the way I was so used to seeing Taylor behave. But as strong as that friendship was, was it worth giving up human friendship for? I valued my own friendship with Cam, and even the shorter bonds I'd formed with Tom and his friends, but when I thought about losing my human companions . . . Amanda and I argued a lot, we made fun of each other, we played tricks on each other . . . during those moments, we could hardly stand each other . . . but in the end, we knew it was all in fun. We knew that we didn't mean anything by it, we knew that underneath, we were still best friends. And I knew that I would never be able to stand letting my ability take Amanda or any of my other human friends away from me. But on the other hand, I owed my friendship with Cam to that ability. I could never honestly say that I wished I'd never become a vulpix, because that would be saying that I wished I'd never met Cam. Taylor had lost his human friends to his ability, but would the same happen to me? Surely some kind of balance between the two sides could be achieved. Surely.

'Well, whatever,' said Taylor. 'You'll find out what it's like soon enough. What we've gotta worry about is what's gonna happen with Lugia.'

'Lugia, fine, but I don't wanna hear any more about this "Moon" nonsense,' I said. 'I don't care about some stupid legend, but I _saw_ Lugia beat Ho-Oh and I wanna know what that was all about.'

'And how do you expect to know what it's about if you ignore the legend? I've _told_ you what it's about. It's about Moon taking over Sun's territory. If we don't do anything about it, the world is gonna stay night forever.'

'Oh please,' I rolled my eyes. 'Lugia and Ho-Oh have nothing to do with day and night. Not even a legendary pokémon can control nature.'

'Then you have even less idea about pokémon than I thought you did. Even non-legendary pokémon can affect nature. Don't you know about how venusaurs can make flowers grow, or how absols can bring about natural disasters?'

'Have you ever actually seen either of those things happen? Maybe they're just myths too, you know.'

'Why do you think you have to see something to believe it? Millions of people haven't seen you or me become pokémon but we both know it's true.'

'Because we _have_ seen it. You can't honestly tell me you would have believed it if you'd never seen it happen.'

'Why not? I believe in plenty of things I've never seen. What about legendary pokémon? You say you saw Ho-Oh and Lugia, but did you believe in them before that?'

I paused. He had a point there. I had always believed in legendary pokémon . . . in fact, it had hardly ever occurred to me that some people _didn't_ believe in them. But then again, I had always been sure that I'd seen Ho-Oh before.

'Yes I did, but I'd seen Ho-Oh before the day I saw it battling Lugia.'

'When?'

'I don't remember when it was. But I was always able to remember this time when I was in this dark forest and I could see Ho-Oh flying-'

'And then she looked at you, and then a piece of ash fell down, and you reached out and took it.'

I blinked, swallowed, and stared at him. A smile curved on his face, and he laughed shortly.

'I've got the exact same memory. Kind of disturbing that I've got that much in common with you, but doesn't that tell you something? Ho-Oh obviously has something to do with us becoming pokémon. Whether you believe the Sun and Moon legend or not, we've gotta do something about Lugia. We might be the only ones who can.'

'Oh, and what do you expect _us_ to do against a legendary pokémon, much less one who can use _water_ attacks and we're _fire_ types?'

'I don't know yet. But there's no point sitting around waiting for something to happen.'

'Hmph,' I shrugged. 'I suppose. Do you know Eustacia?'

'The chansey? Of course, everyone knows her. Why?'

'Cam wants me to go and see her,' I said. 'I'm supposed to be meeting him now but you distracted me. I _guess _you can come along too.'

'Why?' he asked. He gestured to his injured hand. 'She can't heal this while I'm a human, and she doesn't know I'm a human anyway. I don't have enough energy to become a ninetales right now.'

'Don't tell me you're one of the ones who things Eustacia is some kind of god,' I said, rolling my eyes.

'I wouldn't claim that much of her, but she is pretty special. She's healed me heaps of times.'

'Then how do you explain that Team Magma keeps coming after me because of her?'

'What are you talking about? What's Eustacia got to do with Team Magma?'

'She told me to be careful of them, like she was helping me or something, and then miraculously they showed up at camp and caused me trouble. She obviously set me up!'

'And how do you think Eustacia knew you'd be on that camp?'

I paused. 'Well . . . she knew I was a human. Cam took me to see her as a vulpix, but I turned back while I was there. She probably figured out I went to Spectrum High and that I'd be in year nine and-'

'Don't you think that's a bit farfetched?'

I glared at him. 'Aren't you the one who keeps telling me to believe in things I haven't seen? She's obviously working with Team Magma. Believe me.'

'Whatever, kid. Look, I'll come with you, but not to help you with your stupid conspiracy theory. If Eustacia told you to be careful of Team Magma after finding out about your transformation, maybe she actually knows a bit about it, and about why Team Magma is actually after you. Who knows, maybe that might help us find out what's going on with Lugia.'

I glared at him. I should have known it was a bad idea to tell Taylor. Now he'd make this even more difficult for me.

'Well, come on. You don't wanna keep Cam waiting,' said Taylor, and began walking away. I promptly went and walked ahead of him. He may have been able to become a pokémon for longer than I had, he may have been a more experienced battler than me, and his pokémon form may have been the evolved form of mine, but there was no way I was going to let him get the better of me.


	17. Chapter 16: Humans in the Garden

Hi everyone, I just want to give a big thanks to everybody who's posted reviews for this story. To be honest, when I began writing it, I wasn't sure I'd even get this far with it (I have a habit of giving up on fanfics). But thanks to everyone's encouraging reviews, I'm sure that I'll see it all the way to the end now! I want to give particular thanks to everyone who reviewed the last few chapters (thirteen, fourteen, fifteen) because I was really unsure about how I'd handled the whole Taylor thing. I didn't want to specifically ask for feedback on it because I wanted people to be honest, but I got more reviews on those few chapters than I did for earlier ones anyway, so I'm really grateful for that! 

Also, I just noticed that in the chapter selection, I made a typo for Chapter Fifteen. I accidentally called it "One of My Own King" instead of "One of My Own Kind". That puts a whole new spin on it, doesn't it? "Who is this 'king' you speak of, Kit?" Heh, well it's fixed now, so sorry if that confused anyone. ^_^; 

But enough rambling; on with the story! 

**Chapter Sixteen - Humans in the Garden**

Taylor and I reached the Extant Cave to find Cam sitting outside, waiting patiently. His face brightened up when he saw me, but then he caught sight of Taylor, and he looked away, as if pretending he hadn't seen us.

'Hi Cam,' I said, and he turned back to us uncertainly.

'Hi Cam,' smiled Taylor, giving Cam a wave. I glared at Taylor, then bent down to Cam.

'Cam, this is gonna sound crazy . . . but that ninetales we saw yesterday . . . well . . . it turns out he was Taylor . . .' I said. Cam blinked, looked up at Taylor, then looked back at me, unconvinced.

'_That boy is Russell?_' he asked.

I nodded. 'Yeah. I never would have believed it either, but I saw him change from a ninetales back into a human. I guess . . . I guess I'm not the only one after all.'

Cam swallowed, glanced at Taylor again, then nodded. '_It's hard to believe, but I know you wouldn't lie to me._'

I nodded slowly. I was shocked at how easily Cam had accepted it. If anyone had told me before today that Russell was really Taylor, I never would have believed them. Did Cam really trust me enough to just take my word as fact? He'd said he knew I wouldn't lie to him, but how could he possibly know such a thing? I hadn't even known him for all that long, and already he trusted me that much? It didn't feel right for someone to have that much trust in me, because I knew deep down that I could easily lie to people, that I already had lied to my friends and family . . ..

'Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you it was me, Cam,' said Taylor. 'I just thought it'd be fun to see how long it took for the kid to figure it out.'

I glared at him. Not only did he think he could just make fun of me like that, but here he was talking casually with Cam as if they were best friends.

'I've noticed you hanging around my farm over the past few days,' said Taylor. 'I didn't say anything to you 'cause we didn't really know each other, but now that you know I'm Russell, you can come and talk to me or any of the other pokémon if you want. Might wanna stay away from the other humans, they're a bit stuck-up and annoying, but all the pokémon are cool enough.'

'The _other_ humans are stuck-up and annoying?' I asked. 'Well now I know where you get it from.' What he'd just said to Cam had gotten to me. He thought he could just invite Cam to talk to him and his pokémon like they were old buddies? As far as I was concerned, Taylor having the same ability as me meant nothing - he was still the same old jerk, and I didn't want him influencing Cam in any way. The kecleon was just too nice a person to befriend someone like Taylor.

'Actually I think it's one of those traits that skips over one of the connections, so it goes from them, skips me and goes straight to you,' said Taylor.

'Which makes you the worst of them all because you're the carrier of the trait,' I said.

'But at least with me it's passive, I make you annoying without actually being annoying myself.'

'Gee, you could've fooled me. The only reason you think everyone else is annoying is because they think you are, and it's a mutual agreement.'

'_Um . . . Kit . . .._'

I looked down to see Cam looking from Taylor to me and back again uncertainly. I sighed. I didn't want to argue with Cam, even if it was with Taylor.

'Let's just go see Eustacia,' I said.

Cam nodded. '_I'm sure she'll want to see Taylor too, since he's just like you._'

'Just like me!?' I exclaimed. 'OK, so he may have the same ability as me, but to say that he's "just like me"!? He's the last person in the world I'd want to be compared to me!'

'_Sorry, Kit,_' said Cam, looking down at the ground. '_I didn't mean it like that, I just . . .._'

'It's OK Cam, she's just jealous 'cause she's _not_ like me,' smiled Taylor. 'Now let's go. Where are Dale and Dena?'

Cam blinked. '_You know Dale and Dena?_'

'Course I do,' said Taylor. 'It's just that they only know me as a ninetales.'

'_Oh, I see,_' nodded Cam. '_Well, I hope they'll let you in. Eustacia told them to let Kit in but they don't know about you . . .._'

'Well, we'll give it a shot,' said Taylor. 'If it doesn't work, we can try later when I've got enough energy to become a ninetales.'

Cam nodded, and moved over to the rocks on the side of the entrance boulder. I sighed. Despite my own unfriendly relationship with Taylor, Cam seemed to actually get along fine with him. It felt so strange to see a jerk like Taylor getting along so well with a good friend like Cam, but I couldn't be annoyed at Cam because of it; I knew it was just part of his friendly personality. And it wasn't as if he were being any less friendly towards me because of it. I'd just have to put up with it.

'_Hi Dale,_' said Cam. '_I've brought Kit to see Eustacia._'

The rocks began to move, and Dale emerged. He glanced at me, then at Taylor, then back at Cam.

'_Hey man, Eustacia said to let the short dark one in, she never said nothing about the hairy one,_' he said.

I burst out laughing. '"The hairy one"! Hear that Taylor? You're officially identified by the Extant Cave guards as "the hairy one"!'

He raised an eyebrow, and pushed his glasses up. 'So?'

'Oh come on, as if that's not funny,' I smiled.

'I'm a ninetales and you think being called hairy is insulting to me?' he asked. I sighed. He was such a weirdo. Even as a human, he seemed to identify as a pokémon. Surely there was something wrong with that. This guy had a lot to learn about being human.

'_She'll want to see this boy, too,_' Cam tried to negotiate with Dale. '_Please let him in too. I've never lied to you before - Eustacia told you I was telling the truth about Kit, so please trust me on this one too._'

'_I dunno, man,_' said Dale with a sigh. '_I don't even think we should be letting the first one in. The rules have always said no humans. Eustacia said to let that one in and I know that what she says goes but I really don't wanna let this other one in without her word._'

'_Oh, chill out, Dale,_' I turned to see Dena on the other side of the boulder. '_We can trust Cam. He's been bringing sick pokémon to Eustacia for years. He's never let us down before, not ever. If Cam says this human's all right, we ain't got a right to argue._'

Dale sighed. '_All right sis, but if anything happens, you're takin' the blame for this._'

'_Whatever, Dale. Nothin's gonna happen. You know we can trust Cam._'

'_Yeah yeah,_' said Dale. '_Let's get this boulder moved._'

Dena nodded, and the two geodudes grabbed the boulder from either side, rolling it aside and opening the entrance to the cave. Although I could see now that the boulder wasn't quite as big as it had seemed when I was a vulpix, it was still impressive that two little geodudes could move it with such ease. Imagine having strength like that. I'd seen pokémon on TV before displaying their strength . . . machamps lifting whole buses, wartortles fighting massive fires with their natural water supplies. With my ability to become a pokémon, I had the potential to perform great feats like that too . . . if I could only figure out how.

'_Thanks guys,_' said Cam. '_I promise nothing bad will happen because of this, and if somehow it does, there's no need for you to take the blame, Dena, because I will._'

'_That's OK Cam, we know we can trust you,_' said Dena. '_Isn't that right Dale?_'

'_Yeah . . . sure,_' said Dale, and kept an eye on us as we headed into the cave. Once we were inside, they pulled the boulder back in front of the entrance, and we were plunged into darkness.

'_Cam, is that you?_' A dark figure came towards us, waving.

'_Yeah, it's me,_' said Cam. When the figure reached us, a ball of light sparked to light on its tail and I saw that it was Tama, the flaaffy who had led us through the cave last time. She looked up at Taylor and me, then turned to Cam.

'_Eustacia said there was just one of them,_' she said.

'_I know,_' said Cam. '_But she'll want to see this boy as well. And I know he's not a threat to us. He saved Kit and me from some bad humans yesterday._'

'_Really?_' Tama asked, glancing up at Taylor. '_Well, it's good to know that not _all_ of them are mean, like the ones who keep my mareep kindred just for their wool._'

I laughed, and Taylor sighed. Here Tama was complimenting Taylor for not being like farmers, when all along his family ran a farm.

'_Yeah . . ._' said Cam uncertainly. Although I would have loved for him to point out that Taylor was one of the humans who Tama hated, I knew it was best that we stayed on her good side.

'_Well, let's get going, follow me,_' said Tama, and the three of us followed her through the cave. She and Cam talked a little on the way, and occasionally she stopped to say hello to a paras or a zubat. I was surprised at how calm she was about leading two humans through the sacred cave. She was obviously more open-minded about humans than Dale, not to mention all the other wild pokémon. The ones in this cave didn't seem to be afraid of us like the ones outside were either, perhaps because of their lack of contact with humans.

We soon reached the river cave, and I belatedly remembered that to get to Eustacia's garden, we had to travel across water on the back of a lapras. Although I had passed out the other time I'd been here, I could still remember the way the water dripped off the stalactites into the clear, still water, and caused ripples to rush through it, distorting the reflections. Water made me nervous not just because I couldn't swim properly, not just because I was afraid of it putting out the fire inside my heart, but because of the way it altered everything. It could change its shape so easily. Put it inside a bowl, in a flask, in a glass, no matter what the shape, it would change itself to fill its container, to suit the situation. But it didn't stop there. If you picked up a glass of water and looked into it to see your hand on the other side, you could make out the colours, sometimes you could make out the shape, but it wouldn't look like your hand anymore. It would be distorted into something unfamiliar, which is a scary thing to happen to your own hand.

'_Hello Tama, hello Cam._'

I looked up to see Porter the lapras at the edge of the river. I swallowed uncertainly. Why wasn't there another way to get to Eustacia's garden? I didn't want to have to travel across water, and I didn't want to have to get any closer to that lapras either.

'_Are both of these humans here to see Eustacia?_' Porter asked. '_She told me there was just one._'

'_She thought there would be just one, but this boy has to see her as well,_' said Cam. '_He won't cause any trouble, I promise._'

'_Well, if you say so . . ._' said Porter. '_Eustacia told me to trust the human you brought so I suppose if I can trust you and I can trust your human friend, I can trust the other one as well._'

Cam nodded. '_Thanks Porter._'

'_Well, climb on,_' said Porter, gesturing to his back. I gulped and looked up at Taylor to see how he was handling this. It was hard to make out his facial expression with only Tama's tail light to see by, but I was sure that he looked a little squeamish. He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then walked over to the lapras and climbed onto his back. I stared, shocked at how calmly he'd been able to do that. Surely he was as nervous about water as I was?

'_Are you OK, Kit?_' Cam asked worriedly. '_I know it's uneasy for you but Porter has never let anyone fall into the river. I promise you'll be-_'

'I'm fine,' I cut him off. If Taylor could do it, so could I. There was no way I was going to make myself look like a wimp in front of him; I knew he'd only insult me about it for the rest of my life. Narrowing my eyes and clenching my fists together, I forced myself to step forward and climb onto the lapras's back, sitting down between the spikes on his back and holding onto one for support.

'Careful there kid, you don't wanna fall in,' grinned Taylor.

I glared at him. 'No, _you'd _better be careful or I'll _push_ you in.'

'Oh, like you'd even have the strength!' Taylor laughed.

'Would you like me to test it?' I snapped back at him.

'_Kit,_' sighed Cam, as he too climbed onto Porter's back. '_You're not being very nice. I don't know why you don't like this boy but he _did_ save us twice. Can't you be a little nicer?_'

I stared at him for a moment, then sighed and looked away. I'd always been so friendly with Cam. It hadn't been until he'd seen Taylor and me together that he'd realised how short my temper could be, and how sharp my tongue could be. When I'd seen Taylor being friendly with his espeon and even with Cam, it had been a shock to me because I was used to seeing him act like a jerk. So when Cam saw me fighting with Taylor, it must have been a shock to him because he was used to seeing me act friendly. He knew now that I wasn't always like that. It didn't seem fair for me to ruin his image of me as a friendly person . . . no matter if this was my true self or not.

After a brief and uncertain silence, Cam turned to Tama. '_Thanks for guiding us, Tama._'

'_No problem, Cam,_' the flaaffy smiled. '_I'll see you later._'

'_Bye Tama,_' said Cam, and looked up at Porter.

'_Ready?_' the lapras asked. '_Let's get going. Hold on everyone._'

He began to move, and I gripped onto his spike tighter. Although he only swam slowly, my closeness to the water, and the sound it made when he ran his flippers through it, were making me unsteady. After a minute or so of staring into the water feeling more uneasy by the second, I shut my eyes and forced myself to stay calm, to just pretend that I wasn't there, to sit back and wait for us to reach Eustacia's garden.

Only a few minutes later, I felt light filtering down on us, and I opened my eyes to see that we had just emerged from the cave, and had come into a pure, peaceful garden. It had been some time since I had seen it, and when I had been here before, I'd been in too much shock and confusion to take in the beauty of it. The grass was of the most pure green shade I had ever seen, and it was scattered with flowers and tall, untouched trees; a contrast to the shrubs, stumps and dying trees of the rest of the bushland. I had to wonder how a peaceful place like this could exist in the middle of a harsh and dangerous bush. Was it the exclusion of humans that had allowed it to remain so pure?

Porter reached the edge of the river, and Cam, Taylor and I climbed off his back. As soon as Taylor and I stepped foot on the grass, a series of sharp cries sounded out, and I saw several pokémon scurry away, hiding behind or up trees.

'_Thanks for the ride, Porter,_' said Cam.

'_My pleasure,_' nodded Porter. Cam nodded to him, then looked up at Taylor and me.

'_Come on,_' he said. '_Don't worry about all the pokémon. Eustacia tried to tell them that you're harmless but you can't really expect them to understand . . . they've all been brought up thinking that all humans are bad. Maybe we'll be able to teach them that that's not true, but it will take some time. Let's go and see Eustacia._'

He led us across the grass, and I could feel the eyes of all the pokémon staring at us in fear as we passed them. I forced myself to ignore them, and followed Cam to a small rock cave, which I recognised as the one I had woken up in after the first time I'd become a vulpix. We stepped inside, and I found myself looking down at an aged chansey . . . Eustacia.

Eustacia looked at Cam, then at me, then turned her glance to Taylor. She looked at him curiously, then closed her eyes for a moment, stayed perfectly still, and opened them again.

'_Perhaps I'm mistaken . . . but is that you, Taylor?_' she asked.

Taylor raised an eyebrow. 'Yeah, it's me. How did you know?'

'_Each time I've seen you as a ninetales, I have been sure that I could sense something about you that was different from any other ninetales,_' said Eustacia. '_I never imagined that it could mean that you were a human, but the moment you walked in here just then, I was sure I recognised you._'

'Well,' said Taylor with a laugh. 'At least that saves me the trouble of trying to explain who I am.'

Eustacia nodded, and turned from Taylor to me. '_A boy who is both a ninetales and a human, and a girl who is both a vulpix and a human . . .._'

'Yeah yeah, it's all very strange and everything, but before you go into some mysterious rant about it, I want you to explain a few things to me,' I said, putting my hands on my hips. 'For example, how the heck did Team Magma find me at my school camp after you oh-so-nicely warned me about them? Isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?'

'_Team Magma has discovered you?_' Eustacia asked, opening her eyes wide.

'Oh go ahead, try and act all surprised, I _know_ it was you who told them where to find me,' I said.

'_Kit!_' Cam exclaimed. '_What are you talking about? Eustacia would never do a thing like that!_'

'That's what she'd like you to think,' I muttered, but I found myself wishing I'd confronted Eustacia alone. Both Cam and Taylor were on her side. It would be difficult for me to try to get anything out of her while she had their support.

'_I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding, child,_' said Eustacia slowly. '_I have never been in contact with any members of that horrible organisation. I have only heard the tales of their awful operations from pokémon I have healed._'

'Oh sure,' I said, rolling my eyes. 'Then is it just a coincidence that you told me about Team Magma then they showed up at my school camp and tried to take me prisoner? Not to mention yesterday when I came out to see you and your guards wouldn't let me in and Team Magma's poochyena _miraculously_ showed up while Cam was negotiating with them.'

'For crying out loud, kid,' moaned Taylor. 'Your little conspiracy theory doesn't even make any sense. If Eustacia were working with Team Magma, _why_ would she warn you about it?'

'To make it look like she was helping me when really she was setting me up!' I said.

Eustacia shook her head. '_I am sorry you were discovered by Team Magma, but I give you my word that I would never do anything to help such a terrible group of humans. My role is to heal injured pokémon. Team Magma abuses the powers of pokémon. Many of my patients have been severely hurt by those humans. I have seen the horrible effects they have on pokémon. Helping an organisation like that is one thing I would never do, no matter what the circumstances._'

'Then you give me an explanation of how they found me all the way out in the National Park!' I said, shaking my head. 'Why is Team Magma after me, and why did they only ever become a problem for me after you told me to be careful of them?'

'_I warned you about Team Magma because of the reports pokémon have been giving me about its operations,_' said Eustacia. '_I do not know how they managed to do this, but I have heard that Team Magma has heard the legend of human creation as told by the vulpixes and ninetales, and that-_'

'Legend of human creation?' Taylor cut in.

Eustacia paused. '_You have not heard the legend?_'

'I've heard a lot of legends,' said Taylor. 'But I don't remember ever hearing one told by vulpixes and ninetales.'

'_I do not know the full legend,_' said Eustacia. '_I only know the basic story. I can tell you what I know if you wish._'

'Who cares about some stupid legend?' I asked. 'Tell me why you reckon Team Magma's after me, and if you don't have a good enough explanation, I'm gonna have to keep believing you set me up.'

'Get over yourself, Eustacia has better things to do than cause you trouble,' said Taylor. 'This legend is obviously important, now shut up and listen to it.'

'Some myth is more important than the fact that I'm being chased by an international criminal organisation?' I demanded.

'_Please children, do not fight,_' said Eustacia. '_It is disrespectful to the weak and injured pokémon here. I will explain what both of you ask for to the best of my ability. Kit, I will have to explain the legend first in order for you to understand why Team Magma has an interest in you. You do not have to believe the legend, but its possibility points towards why Team Magma would be trying to catch you._'

'Whatever,' I shrugged. 'This better not be too long.'

'_As I said, I only know the basic story. To hear more details, you will have to speak to some vulpixes or ninetales from the pack in this bushland._'

'There's a vulpix pack in the Genesis Bushland!?' I exclaimed.

'_Yes,_' nodded Eustacia. '_But it is very secretive. I have treated some of its members before, but none have ever told me where the pack lives._'

I sighed. 'So much for that then.'

'Let's worry about that later,' said Taylor. 'Please, tell us the legend, Eustacia.'

The chansey nodded. '_The legend tells of a young female vulpix and male ninetales who were out playing in the forest one day when they came across the Sacred Ash. When they touched it, their bodies changed into human bodies, and this is how humans came into existence. There is much more detail to the story, of course, but unfortunately I have not heard the full version._'

'So vulpixes and ninetales believe that pokémon came before humans?' Taylor asked. 'It's kind of strange that they have legends about how humans were created, while at the same time humans have legends about how pokémon were created. It's almost as if one has trouble acknowledging the existence of the other.'

'_In my time as a healer, I have heard many legends from different species of pokémon, but I have not heard any human legends before,_' said Eustacia. '_I would be interested to hear some._'

'Well, the one that comes to mind for me is the Sun and Moon legend,' said Taylor. 'It's about how Sun had control of day and Moon had control of night, but since humans slept in the day, Moon created pokémon to live during the night. But I reckon Sun and Moon aren't actually the sun and the moon, they're Ho-Oh and Lugia.'

'Hang on,' I said, turning to Eustacia. 'What did you say it was that made the vulpix and ninetales become humans?'

'_The Sacred Ash,_' said Eustacia.

'This is probably crazy, 'cause I know that legend can't possibly be true, but do you reckon the Sacred Ash has anything to do with Ho-Oh's ashes?' I asked.

'You know what, kid?' Taylor asked. 'I hate to admit it, but I think you might be on to something there.'

'It doesn't make sense though, 'cause it was Ho-Oh's ashes that made me change from a human into a vulpix,' I said. 'Not the other way around.'

'_When Cam first brought you to see me after you had been wounded, you changed back into a human in your sleep,_' said Eustacia. '_As I did not know you were a human to begin with, I thought that perhaps the vulpixes' legend had been recreated, that a vulpix really had become a human._'

'Yeah, but that's not what happened, is it?' I said. 'I was a human who became a vulpix. So that legend's obviously not true.'

'It's strange, though,' said Taylor. 'If this "Sacred Ash" really is Ho-Oh's ashes, then the vulpix legend says that Ho-Oh created humans. Whereas the Sun and Moon legend says that Lugia created pokémon.'

'So what?' I asked. 'They're obviously not true, 'cause they contradict each other. One says pokémon came first, one says humans came first. If any of them are true, which I doubt, only one of them can be.'

'Not necessarily,' said Taylor. 'Stories change with each retelling. Details get lost and new ones get added in. I doubt either of those legends are the same as they were originally told. Maybe they _are_ both true.'

'Or maybe neither of them are,' I said. 'And they still don't explain why Team Magma would be chasing me.'

'_I can't know the exact reason why such an organisation would be trying to catch you,_' said Eustacia. '_But I have heard that Team Magma is searching for the Sacred Ash, perhaps to test whether it really does have the power to turn a pokémon into a human._'

'And when they saw me change, they figured _I_ must have the Sacred Ash?' I asked. Eustacia nodded. 'Well I suppose that makes sense, but if you're really on my side, why didn't you tell me all that the first time instead of just mysteriously warning me about Team Magma?'

'_You did not seem to want to listen to me,_' said Eustacia. '_You told me you weren't worried about Team Magma so I trusted that you would be safe. Perhaps I should have been more cautious. I am deeply sorry for the trouble Team Magma has caused you._'

'Well don't just apologise to me, what about Cam?' I asked, gesturing to the kecleon. 'That Rose woman actually _captured_ him in a pokéball and I had to go and save him!'

'_I am sorry, Cam,_' said Eustacia, looking down at the ground.

'_Oh, it . . . it's not your fault . . ._' said Cam uncertainly.

'Yeah kid, cut her some slack!' said Taylor. 'If you didn't wanna listen to her it was _your_ fault more than anyone's!'

'_Please child, do not blame Kit,_' said Eustacia. '_What has happened is only the fault of Team Magma itself. We cannot direct the blame amongst ourselves. What is important now is that Kit is kept safe from these bad humans, and Taylor as well, for I'm sure when they discover that he too can become a pokémon, they will target him._'

Taylor laughed shortly. 'But the difference is that I can handle Team Magma and she can't. When they'd cornered her yesterday I fought 'em off for her.'

'_That was very brave of you,_' said Eustacia. '_But you still must be careful. I have heard many stories about these humans, and I know that they are very cunning and devious. In a fair battle you may be able to defeat them, but you can not expect them to fight fair._'

'Well personally, I think Team Magma is the least of our worries anyway,' said Taylor. 'We've got Lugia to worry about.'

'_Lugia?_' Eustacia asked.

'Yeah,' nodded Taylor. 'The legend says that one day Moon will return to overthrow Sun and turn the world into eternal night. And the kid claims she saw Lugia defeat Ho-Oh the day she first became a vulpix.'

Eustacia turned to me. '_The day you first became a vulpix, was that the day Cam first brought you to see me?_' I nodded. '_Many pokémon have told me that they witnessed the two great beasts fighting in the sky that day. Perhaps Taylor is right, and perhaps that human legend is true._'

'Yeah, and perhaps it's not,' I said. 'And look, even if Lugia _is_ going to try to turn the world into eternal night - as if it could do that anyway - what do you expect _us_ to be able to do against it? That'd be like a worldwide phenomenon. Team Magma is a little more close to home.'

'Then maybe you should stop thinking about yourself,' snapped Taylor. 'Team Magma's after you, so what? That's nothing compared to Lugia being after the whole _world_.'

'And how do you expect us to be able to miraculously stop Lugia?' I demanded. 'For a start, you don't even know if that stupid legend is true, and even if it is, there's nothing we can do about it. You know, maybe there are some things we can change, but we can't save the whole world, Taylor.'

'You only think that because you don't care about the rest of the world,' said Taylor. 'If it's not about you personally, it doesn't concern you.'

'Oh, and like you'd know a lot about caring about people, Mr "I don't need any human friends 'cause I've got enough pokémon friends",' I said, shaking my head.

'Being friends with someone is different to caring about someone,' said Taylor. 'So what if I don't have human friends? Do you think that means I don't care whether humans live or die? Of course I do. You're the one who doesn't care about anyone outside your little circle of friends.'

'_Please, children,_' sighed Eustacia before I could snap back at Taylor. '_Do not fight. Both of you have your own concerns. Team Magma is a threat to Kit, and yes, if your human legend is true, then Lugia may be a threat to the world, but we do not know enough about either of these threats to do very much about them. I suggest you seek out the wild vulpix pack. Its members will tell you more about their legend, and perhaps that will help you to understand both your own legend, and the reasons behind Team Magma's plot to capture Kit._'

'And how do you suggest we find this vulpix pack?' I demanded. 'You said yourself you don't know where it is.'

'_I do not know where it is, but perhaps some of the wild pokémon in this bushland will,_' said Eustacia. '_If all of us work together to ask about the location of this pack, perhaps we will be able to find it._'

'Oh, so you think we should just wander around the Genesis Bushland talking to pokémon while Team Magma is out there somewhere looking for me?' I asked.

'Just stop freaking out about Team Magma,' moaned Taylor. 'Look, if they come after you again, I'll fight them off. Maybe you're not an experienced battler but I am. And maybe you don't want my help but you obviously can't do this without me so just accept it.'

I sighed angrily and looked away. I didn't know what to say to that. I couldn't refuse his help because he was right; I did need it. But accepting help from someone I'd done nothing but fight with for most of my life wasn't easy. I wanted to be able to do this on my own, or at the least, to be able to do it with the help of my friends. I didn't want to have to do it with the help of Taylor. But I knew that that wasn't possible.

'Whatever,' I shrugged.

'Look, what do you say we go home?' Taylor asked. 'Cam can ask some of his friends if they know anything about the vulpix pack, and I'll ask some of mine. And I wanna speak to my grandma about this.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'What help will she be?'

'She's a retired pokémon researcher, she knows a lot about pokémon,' said Taylor. 'Plus she's the only human - well, besides you - who knows about me being a ninetales. Maybe you should come and talk to her too, it's not as if you live very far away.'

'My parents will be freaking out if I'm not home before they are,' I said, but I knew it was only an excuse to avoid spending more time than necessary with Taylor.

'Oh, and I'm sure it'd be real hard for you to go in and tell them you're next door,' said Taylor, rolling his eyes.

'Whatever,' I said. 'I may as well see if she's got anything to say about this . . . strangely enough your grandma's always been nice to me, obviously that isn't hereditary.'

'I don't know how she stands it,' said Taylor. He turned to Eustacia. 'Thanks for telling us the vulpix legend and everything. We'll come back if we need your help.'

Eustacia nodded. '_I shall tell Dale, Dena, Tama and Porter that both of you are to be allowed here from now on. But you must remember to keep this place a secret from the rest of humankind. We cannot afford to have its location revealed to those who would ruin it._'

'We understand, we won't tell anyone,' said Taylor. He turned to me. 'Well, let's go.'


	18. Chapter 17: A New Purpose

[OK, it looks like I didn't make something clear enough in the story; thanks to The Mad Tortoise for pointing this out to me. Looking back on it, I can see how I made things a bit confusing. Since I know what's going on, I sometimes fail to point things out properly, and people get confused. I probably especially get things a bit unclear about Taylor's side of the story since it's not told from his perspective. So just a bit of an explanation: back when Taylor as a ninetales met Kit as a vulpix, she told him her name first. When he heard her name was Kit, he got suspicious that the vulpix was the same Kit as the one he knew as a human. He thought it would be kind of fun to see whether she could figure out who he really was, so he told her his name was Russell instead of Taylor. However, even though he told Kit his name is Russell, he's still known as Taylor to everyone else, including pokémon (the only people who call him Russell are his family). So Eustacia (and all the other pokémon he knows as a ninetales) knows him as Taylor and not Russell. Does that make sense now? I hope so (for all I know I probably made it more confusing). I'll try to make sure I get things a bit clearer in future, but if anyone else is confused about anything, feel free to ask me and I'll clear it up for you (as long as it's not something that's yet to be explained, of course!).]

**Chapter Seventeen - A New Purpose**

After leaving Eustacia's garden, Taylor and I left Cam in the Genesis Bushland and began heading back to the city. It felt strange to be walking side by side with Taylor, but I knew that I would have to get used to it; with him being the only one with the same ability as me, we would probably have to be allies from now on. That didn't mean that we had to be friends, but we would have to co-operate to an extent if we were ever to figure anything out about these transformations.

We walked in silence. Although it was unusual for Taylor and me to be together without constantly insulting each other, I was just sick of arguing with him. I knew that it wouldn't be possible for us to have a sensible conversation, so I just stayed quiet. The silence was unnerving, but it was better than fighting.

When we reached my apartment building, I unlocked my apartment and put my school backpack away in my room. Fortunately my parents weren't home from work yet, so I was saved from having to explain to them where I'd been. In case they got home before I was done talking to Taylor's grandmother, I left a note saying that I was next door. They'd probably find it a little odd that I'd gone and visited Mrs Taylor without a reason (and I could hardly tell them what the real reason was), but it was better than them freaking out over where I was.

I locked my front door again and walked down to the apartment next to mine. Taylor knocked on the door, and a few moments later, it was opened by his grandmother.

'Oh, Russell!' she exclaimed, then smiled. 'It's good to see you.'

'You too Grandma,' nodded Taylor. He paused. 'I've got some really crazy news to tell you.'

'Oh?' Mrs Taylor asked, then belatedly noticed me. 'Oh, hello Kit. Is there something I can help you with?'

Taylor laughed. 'She's with me.'

'Really?' Mrs Taylor asked, looking from me to her grandson and back again. 'Well, it's great to know that you two are friends again.'

'I wouldn't go so far as to call us "friends",' said Taylor.

'What do you mean, "again"?' I asked at the same time. 'As if _we _were ever friends to begin with!'

'Oh, you were very good friends when you were little,' said Mrs Taylor. 'But then suddenly you didn't like each other anymore. Your parents and I could never figure out why.' She sighed. 'Well, I shouldn't be keeping you waiting out here. Come inside.'

She stepped out of the way and let us into her apartment, then closed the door behind us. Taylor promptly went over and sat on one of the lounges, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

'Taylor!' I exclaimed. 'That's so rude, you know. Get your feet off the table!'

'Oh, he's all right,' smiled Mrs Taylor. 'I don't mind.'

Taylor smiled at me triumphantly, and I glared at him before going over and sitting on the other lounge.

'Now, what was it you wanted to- oh my goodness Russell, what happened to your hand!?' Mrs Taylor exclaimed, rushing over to her grandson and bending down to look at his left hand.

'Oh, that,' said Taylor. 'I got it caught in a trap in the bush. It should be OK.'

'Only because _I_ got you out of there,' I added.

'Thank you Kit, you're a very kind girl,' said Mrs Taylor.

Her grandson laughed. 'I bet that's the first time anyone's told her that!'

'Now now Russell, that's not very nice,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Let me get my medical kit. I'll fix that wound up for you.'

She hurried away into another room and returned carrying a small first aid kit. She sat down beside her grandson and got to work on fixing up his hand.

'Oh, I almost forgot,' she said conversationally. 'Elsie came by earlier looking for you.'

'Oh, what did she want?' Taylor asked.

'She didn't say. She said she'll drop in again later in case you're here.'

'Who's Elsie?' I asked.

'She's my-'

'She's Russell's girlfriend,' Mrs Taylor interrupted her grandson with a smile.

'Grandma!' Taylor exclaimed.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be sick. Taylor had a girlfriend? I sure never would have expected that! The poor girl . . . imagine having someone _that_ annoying for a boyfriend! They couldn't possibly have been together for very long; no one would be able to stand him for any extended length of time!

'She's not my girlfriend,' said Taylor, shaking his head.

'She thinks she is,' smiled his grandmother.

'No she doesn't!' Taylor moaned, and for the first time I could ever remember, he actually looked slightly embarrassed. I grinned. Was this one of Taylor's weaknesses? I'd have to remember it for later. Next time he made fun of me, I'd just bring up this "Elsie" girl and embarrass him. 'But if you keep saying that she _might_ start to think she is, so just stop it!'

Mrs Taylor just laughed, then shut the lid on her first aid kit. 'Well, that should help it to heal a bit quicker.'

'Thanks Grandma,' sighed Taylor.

'Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?' his grandmother asked.

'Well . . . it's gonna sound crazy, but . . . it turns out that she' - he gestured to me - 'is a vulpix.'

'What!?' Mrs Taylor exclaimed, turning to look at me.

'Yep,' said Taylor. 'It's just like me being a ninetales, except that she's only a puny unevolved vulpix.'

'Hey!' I exclaimed. 'It's not my fault I've only been a vulpix three times! You could at least give me a _chance_ to evolve!'

'Evolve?' Taylor asked. 'Don't count on it, kid. I may be a ninetales but as far as I can remember, I was never a vulpix. I never evolved into a ninetales, I just always was one. So don't count on evolving, it probably isn't possible.'

'How can you always have been a ninetales?' I asked. 'Everyone knows that all pokémon start out as the lowest evolution of their species.'

'That's how they're born, but as you kept telling me, my parents are human and I was born as a human,' said Taylor. 'I wasn't born as a pokémon, so those rules of biology - stupid as biology is - don't have to apply to me. So I doubt the rules of evolution apply to you either. Face it, kid. You were just destined to be weaker than me.'

'Is that right?' I demanded. 'Just 'cause I needed your help that one time doesn't mean you're stronger than me! Maybe you should stop letting everything you do go to your head and try-'

'Kit, Russell, stop this,' Mrs Taylor interrupted me. 'There's no need for you two to be fighting. Russell, you being an evolved pokémon doesn't make you any better than Kit, it just makes you different. You shouldn't accuse her of being weak. Nobody should be discriminated against of because of whether they've evolved or not. I thought you would understand that.'

Taylor paused, then nodded. 'Yeah. I know.'

I blinked. I was so unused to Taylor agreeing with people that I'd actually expected him to snap back at his grandmother with insults like he always did with me. This other side of Taylor that I'd begun to see lately was really messing up my expectations of him.

'You both should be happy that you've found someone so similar to yourself,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Not fight with each other because of your differences. Now that there are two of you, there's more hope of being able to find out why you're able to transform into pokémon.'

'I don't care why we can do it,' said Taylor. 'She said she saw Lugia defeat Ho-Oh.'

Mrs Taylor turned to me quickly. 'Is that true?'

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'They were fighting in the sky above the Genesis Bushland. Lugia beat Ho-Oh, and then Ho-Oh burned into ashes and when I touched the ashes, I became a vulpix.'

'We don't care about when you became a vulpix,' said Taylor. 'We've gotta worry about Lugia. With Ho-Oh gone, there's nothing to stop Lugia from turning the world into eternal night.'

'There may be,' said Mrs Taylor slowly. 'Even if Ho-Oh has been defeated, Moltres and Entei may still be alive.'

'Moltres and Entei?' I asked. 'What've they got to do with this?'

'Moltres and Entei are Ho-Oh's two most loyal followers,' Mrs Taylor explained. 'As long as they still exist to protect all that Ho-Oh stands for, Lugia will not succeed.'

'But what if Moltres and Entei don't know what's going on?' Taylor asked.

'Then it's up to us to find them and tell them,' said Mrs Taylor. Her grandson paused, then nodded.

'Uhh . . . and how do you expect us to find two legendary pokémon who no one's seen for like centuries?' I asked.

'The reason no one's seen them is that no one believes in them anymore,' said Mrs Taylor. 'With all the rapidly advancing science and technology these days, people are increasingly losing their belief in legends. When pokémon training first became common, trainers didn't aim for hundreds of pokémon or lots of badges and trophies. They aimed to find the legendary pokémon. These days, not even many trainers believe in legendary pokémon anymore, so they've stopped looking for them.'

'OK, but even if we believe in them, how are we supposed to find them?' I asked. 'I wouldn't have the first clue where to look for Moltres and Entei.'

'I'll consult all of my research on these two legendary pokémon,' said Mrs Taylor. 'I'll study where all their claimed sightings have taken place, and we may be able to figure out where they are.'

'Hang on, you're a pokémon researcher, right?' I asked. Mrs Taylor nodded. 'So you're a scientist of some sort. What interest does a scientist have in legends?'

Mrs Taylor smiled. 'I'm a scientist who understands that not everything can be explained with numbers and equations. Myths and legends are a science in themselves, I believe.'

'Isn't it a bit hard to study something that doesn't have any solid truth to it?' I asked.

'Of course,' nodded Mrs Taylor with a smile. 'But that's what makes it so interesting. There's little point in studying something that's already been figured out. Then you're only learning what other people already know. When you study something that isn't so defined, you can make your own discoveries.'

'I guess,' I shrugged.

'Humans have been researching pokémon for hundreds of years, trying to explain all of their mysteries, but I think we've only uncovered a tiny proportion of these,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You two are enough proof of that. When I first found out about Russell being able to become a ninetales, I tried for years to explain it using science, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find an explanation for it. That's why I think we need to look to legends to explain some things that science just can't handle.'

'Ancient civilisations weren't stupid, you know,' said Taylor. 'They probably had more of an idea about the world than we do.'

'That's right,' his grandmother nodded. 'So the more we look to them for-'

She cut herself off as there was a tapping sound against the glass door that led to her balcony. The three of us turned to see what it was, and I saw a mauve canine pokémon standing there, tapping on the door with a paw. I looked at her more closely, and recognised her as the espeon I'd seen at Taylor's farm the day I'd been chased by the shedinjas.

'Here she is,' smiled Mrs Taylor. Her grandson paused, glancing at me, then got up and went over to the balcony door. He opened it and let the espeon inside.

'Hey Elsie,' he said as he closed the door behind her.

Wait a second. "Elsie"? But wasn't Elsie the one who Mrs Taylor had said was Taylor's . . ..

'Your girlfriend is an espeon?' I asked.

Mrs Taylor laughed, Taylor moaned, and the espeon looked away, as if embarrassed.

'She's not my girlfriend,' said Taylor. 'Stop saying that, it's so childish!'

'Oh, you know we're only joking, Russell,' smiled his grandmother.

'Well it's getting really old!' Taylor said with a sigh. 'Just ignore them, Elsie. Come and sit down.'

He came back over to the lounge and sat down. Elsie followed him uncertainly, glancing at me. When she reached Taylor, she looked up at him.

'_Taylor . . . what is that girl doing here?_' she asked.

'She had to talk to Grandma about something, and by the way, she can understand you, so you'd better be careful what you say,' said Taylor.

'_Oh,_' said Elsie, glancing over at me again.

'Um, you know, you're not allowed to have pokémon in this building . . .' I ventured.

Taylor laughed. 'Well me and you here, aren't we?'

'In case you haven't noticed, we're humans,' I said.

'Not this again,' sighed Taylor. 'Well I'm in here all the time as a ninetales anyway, and Elsie comes in all the time too. It's not like they actually come around checking to see if there are any pokémon around.'

'And I think the rules actually say you're not allowed to have pets,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Russell and Elsie are hardly my pets, they're my grandson and his friend.'

'Well, don't blame me if you get kicked out of here,' I shrugged.

'You worry about the stupidest things and don't worry about the important things,' said Taylor. He turned to Elsie. 'Oh and by the way Elsie, I was right, she _is_ the vulpix.'

'_Yes,_' nodded Elsie, looking over at me. '_I can sense it about her._'

I looked at her uncertainly. Could she really sense a thing like that, or was she just saying that? Psychic pokémon could use mental attacks, but they didn't actually have telepathic powers, did they?

'Oh, then how come you didn't sense that I was a vulpix last time you saw me, eh?' I challenged her.

Elsie paused. '_I could sense something about you, but I didn't know what it was. Yesterday Taylor told me that he suspected that you were a vulpix, and now that I've seen you again I'm sure that it's true._'

'Whatever,' I shrugged. I turned to Mrs Taylor. 'So now what do we do? Just wait for you to find out where Moltres and Entei are?'

'You think you're gonna get off that easily?' Taylor asked. 'My grandma's not gonna do all the work for you. You're gonna have to do some research of your own.'

'_Moltres and Entei?_' Elsie asked. '_Has something happened to Ho-Oh!?_'

'Yes, Elsie,' said Mrs Taylor slowly. 'Kit saw Lugia defeat Ho-Oh.'

Elsie opened her eyes wide. '_No . . . this can't happen . . .._'

'Well it obviously can, 'cause it did,' I said. 'And look, I'm not falling for that Sun and Moon nonsense, but Lugia really did look scary up there . . . and there's no way I'm gonna let it just get away with what it did to Ho-Oh. So if we have to find Moltres and Entei to pay Lugia back then fine, but I really don't like our chances.'

'Maybe if you weren't so negative all the time we'd have higher chances,' said Taylor. 'You just can't be bothered doing the work to find Moltres and Entei. It's not that you _can't_ do it, it's that you don't want to.'

'Oh yeah?' I demanded. 'I bet I'll find them before you do!'

Taylor smiled. 'We'll see about that.'

'Yeah, we'll see me find them way before you,' I said.

'Come on, you two,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Stop bickering. This isn't a contest to see who can find them first. We're going to have to work together. Let's all try to find out what we can, and when we find something, we'll contact the others.'

We finally agreed on that, and decided that we'd all do our best to research Moltres and Entei. I had no idea where to even begin looking, but I didn't tell them that. I'd figure it out somehow. I wasn't going to let them take all the glory for this. It was me who had seen Lugia defeat Ho-Oh, and as far as I was concerned, it was going to be me who put a stop to Lugia.

A few days later I was lying on my bed holding a pencil and staring into a blank sketchbook. I'd been putting off doing my art assignment for weeks, but I couldn't leave it for too much longer or I'd never get it done. It seemed like I'd been lying there for hours but I still had no idea what I was going to do. I hadn't ever really had a lot of trouble with art in the past - it had always been one of my better subjects - but this particular assignment was getting to me. We had to make a self-portrait. In all the time I'd been doing art at school, I'd really enjoyed painting landscapes or objects or other people . . . but myself? It wasn't that I didn't think I'd be able to draw myself; I'd be fine with a few photos or a mirror. But art was never as simple as just being able to draw. I'd have to think carefully about what colours, what styles, what techniques to use. Whatever I ended up choosing would be an expression of how I thought about myself. The problem was that I didn't really know how that was. I could portray myself as a strong person, but wouldn't that be more of a fantasy than an accurate portrayal? I could portray myself as a weak person, but what would be the point in that? I didn't want people feeling sorry for me. Nothing I thought of seemed to fit.

Before I could think about it for too much longer, the phone rang. I eagerly leapt up and ran into the main room to answer it, welcoming the distraction from my assignment. I knew it was stupid to keep putting it off, but what was the point in trying to work on art when I wasn't inspired? I picked up the phone and put it to my ear.

'Hello?'

'Hey kid.'

My expression dropped. He had to be kidding.

'What do you think you're doing calling me!?' I exclaimed.

Taylor laughed. 'Well, if you don't want to come and meet the vulpix I've just found, then that's OK. I guess I'll see you at school then. Bye!'

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'A . . . a vulpix?'

'Oh, so _now_ you're interested?'

'You'd better not be lying to me.'

'No. Why would I lie about it? I considered not telling you at all, sure, but then I thought, nah, that sounds like something _you'd_ do.'

'Whatever,' I said. I didn't want to sound eager to hear more from him, but if he'd really found a vulpix . . .. Why did it have to be _him_ who'd found it? Now this was just another thing he'd expect me to be grateful to him for.

'So are you gonna come and meet him or not? I couldn't care less if you come, but I want an answer 'cause if I keep sitting here he'll probably run away before I get a chance to speak to him.'

'Where is he?' I asked.

'He's just sneaking around the farm. Not sure what he's up to, but I'm gonna go ask him before it's too late. So are you coming or not?'

I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was go over to Taylor's house, but if it meant meeting a wild vulpix . . .. This could be the only chance I'd have, and Taylor was going to go and talk to this vulpix anyway. I didn't want him to find out anything about the wild vulpixes without me knowing too.

'All right, fine, I'll come.'

'Jeez, you make it sound like I'm begging you. You could just say "Yeah, OK, thanks a lot for telling me about this", but if you're gonna be like that then fine.'

'So basically the only reason you told me was so you could feel good about yourself by making me say thank you?'

'Don't flatter yourself, you think a thank-you from you is worth anything to me? I just told you 'cause I'm a nice guy.'

'You, a nice guy? That's a good one. Why don't you try looking-'

'Look, if you're coming, then hurry up about it. Don't just sit around arguing with me. As fun as it is to listen to your pathetic attempts at insults, I don't want this vulpix to leave before I get a chance to speak to him. So if you're coming, then hurry up and get down here. Bye.'

'Whatever. I-'

'_Bye_,' he repeated firmly, and hung up. I ground my teeth. I bet he thought he was _so_ cool hanging up on me like that, as if it was actually any kind of clever or even funny way to get the better of someone.

I sighed. As much as I didn't want to have to go and see Taylor, I really wanted to meet that vulpix. I doubted he could give me any answers about my strange ability, but he might at least be able to tell me more about what it was actually like to be a vulpix. I'd been one three times already, but I knew nothing about how to battle as one . . . if I were ever to stand a chance against Team Magma, I'd need to at least learn a few moves.

I nodded to myself, then grabbed my shoes and headed outside.

When I got to Taylor's house, I knocked on the door and was greeted by a girl of around twenty. I assumed she must have been a sister of Taylor; I'd never met any of his family besides his grandmother. She seemed shocked that I was looking for him - he'd probably never had any visitors before - and told me that he was somewhere around the farm. The farm was a pretty big place, so "somewhere around the farm" was a pretty useless direction, but I went out looking for him nonetheless.

I'd only been walking for about a minute when I heard a deep male voice yelling. I knew that it wasn't any of my business to interfere, but curiosity got the best of me. I headed over in the direction the voice had come from, and found myself at a coop full of torchics and combuskens. However, instead of sitting peacefully on their eggs, the whole lot of them was huddled up in one corner. I glanced around the pen, and saw the obvious reason why they weren't sitting on their eggs; the ground of the cage was covered in broken eggshells and spilled yolks.

'I'll only tell you one more time! Get out of the way!'

I turned my attention back to where the voice was coming from, and spotted its owner. I was facing the back of a tall, well-built man who was- I gasped, realising that he was holding a shotgun. Not only that, but standing in between him and the wall of a building, was Taylor. Holding his arms out to either side, he was glaring at the man defiantly.

'I'm not moving.' He said firmly. 'You've got no right to do this.'

'Don't go telling me what _my_ rights are, Russell!' the man growled. 'This is _my_ farm, and I'll do what _I_ see fit to protect it! That little varment cost me a whole coop's worth of eggs! No one gets away with ruining _my_ produce!'

Who was he talking about? Taylor could be a jerk, but I was sure that he wouldn't have smashed all those eggs and scared all the pokémon. So who was Taylor trying to protect? Noticing something out of the corner of my eye, I glanced down to the ground behind Taylor's feet. Cowering behind his legs, was a young vulpix.

I gasped. The vulpix who Taylor had asked me to come to meet . . . had _he_ done this to those eggs? If so, the way that man was yelling, and the gun he was holding . . . no! No, he couldn't possibly . . ..

'Any pokémon that threatens my farm deserves to die!'


	19. Chapter 18: The Vulpix Prince

**Chapter Eighteen - The Vulpix Prince**

'Any pokémon that threatens my farm deserves to die!'

'No pokémon deserves to die!' Taylor cried, and I was shocked to see him looking so serious, so determined, so passionate. He took a deep breath, and dropped a hand down to gesture to the vulpix huddled behind his feet. 'Look at him! He's so thin and weak, he must be starving! He was only trying to survive!'

'Then he's failed! No pokémon gets away with ruining my farm! People rely on this farm for those eggs!'

'And are those people starving? Will any of the humans in this city die if they go without eggs for a week? Of course they won't! None of the humans you sell those eggs to really _need_ them, not like this vulpix does!'

'You ungrateful little brat! The money that this family makes from selling those eggs pays for _your_ meals, you know!'

'Then I'll forego my meals until you recover the cost of the eggs. I don't need food anywhere near as much as this vulpix does. Let him go free, I'll take his punishment for him.'

'You don't get it, do you Russell? His punishment is to die! His punishment is to have his skin hung out as a warning to the rest of his kind to keep off my property!'

That was as much as I could take. My hands were clenched so tightly into fists that they were going numb, my blood was boiling so high that I felt I might explode.

'How dare you!' I yelled. Taylor looked over at me, startled. The man paused before turning around to face me. Seeing his face, I noticed its familiar shape, reminiscent of both Taylor and his grandmother. This man must have been Taylor's father.

'Who are you!?' he demanded. 'What are you doing on my property!? I'll have you charged for trespassing!'

'Calm down Dad, I invited her here,' sighed Taylor, exasperated.

'Hmph,' muttered his father. 'That doesn't give her the right to interfere. Now get out of the way, Russell.'

He pushed his son to the side, and must have caught him off guard, as Taylor stumbled over with little resistence. The man quickly bent down and grabbed the vulpix by the scruff of the neck, lifting him up in one hand.

'_Help!_' the vulpix yelped, frantically thrashing about. '_Help me!_'

'Let go of him!' I yelled, running over to Taylor's father. 'Let go of him!'

'You expect me to listen to some little girl I've never even met before? You have even less of an idea of how to run a farm than my worthless son does.'

I gaped at him. Taylor was annoying, he was cruel . . . but for his own father to call him worthless? That was going too far. I felt myself for once on Taylor's side, wanting to actually defend him against insults that just weren't true, rather than to throw similar words at him myself.

'Maybe I don't know how to run a farm, but at least I'm not a heartless tyrant,' said Taylor coldly, stepping towards his father. His tone was so unfamiliar. Whenever he insulted me, he did it cockily, teasingly. This wasn't an insult. This was something he truly felt, something serious. 'Can you imagine what it's like to be a wild pokémon? No convenience stores, no supermarkets, no guarantee you'll ever find food for even weeks on end. Do you know what it feels like to starve? No human in this city has ever felt hunger like wild pokémon do. No human in this city struggles like-'

'I don't have time to listen to your pathetic little anti-human speech!' his father interrupted him. He turned to walk away.

'_Help!_' the vulpix in his hand shrieked. '_Help me please! Please, somebody!_'

'How can you just ignore that!?' I demanded. 'How can you just listen to him crying out for help and just ignore it!?'

'Let him go, Dad,' said Taylor, slowly but firmly. 'I'll make up for what he did. I'll work it off until I can pay you back five times the amount he caused you to lose. How will killing him solve anything? His death won't bring back the eggs you lost.'

'It will bring me satisfaction.'

'That's enough!' I yelled at the top of my voice, storming over to him. 'That has gotta be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard! You know, for ages I've been wondering why wild pokémon are so scared of humans, but now I know! It's because of people like you!'

'And so they should be scared. It'll teach 'em a lesson. Never to mess with my work!'

'You think he did it just to spite you?' I demanded. 'You think he even _knew_ this was your work? He was probably just hungry and he smelt eggs so he came to try and get some, wouldn't you do the same if you were starving?'

'Wild pokémon should stick to the wild and stay away from my farm. This pokémon's death will be a warning to them all, and neither you or Russell have the right to tell me how to run my farm!'

He turned and began walking away. I ground my teeth and ran up to him, grabbing him by the arm he was holding the vulpix in.

'Stay out of this, you stupid brat!' he yelled, yanking his arm back.

'No!' I cried, and went to grab him again, but he moved out of my reach.

'If that's how you wanna be then I'll shoot it in front of your eyes, see how you like that!' He threw the vulpix to the ground, and he landed with a yelp. The little pokémon weakly pulled himself to his feet as Taylor's father raised his gun.

'No!' I screamed. 'No!'

My inner temperature shot up to its peak in an instant. My instincts overtook me, and I dropped down to my hands and knees as I felt the pokémon inside of me screaming to come out and protect its kindred.

'Get out of here!' I heard Taylor yell at me, and I looked up to see his eyes open wide, his hands almost shaking frantically. 'Get away! You can't let him see this!'

'I can't let him kill the vulpix either!' I yelled back at him, and turned quickly to see the vulpix behind me, trying his best to run away by limping badly. I looked up, saw Taylor's father pointing the gun at the vulpix, and gasped, leaping to my feet.

'Stop!' I yelled, and grabbed him by the arms. '_Stop! Stop!_'

I drew in a gasp as I heard the change in my voice . . . more high-pitched, animal-like . . . and I was sure that I hadn't said "stop" in English . . ..

'Get out of here you moron!' Taylor yelled at me, then before I knew what was happening, he grabbed me by the jacket and ran, dragging me along with him. He bent down, pulled the vulpix into his arms, then shoved my back. 'Run you idiot!'

I gulped, then forced myself back to my senses. He had the vulpix in his arms; it would surely be safe now. So I did what he said, and ran. He followed me, but even while carrying the vulpix, he was still faster than me, and he soon overtook.

'Come back here Russell!' I heard his father yell after us. I cringed and charged onwards. Taylor was annoying, but his father was terrifying.

We made it into the Genesis Bushland, but had barely made it past a few trees when I gave up and collapsed on the ground, exhausted. Taylor must have heard me, because he stopped running, sighed, then came over and sat down beside me, still holding the vulpix in his arms.

Puffing heavily, I was too exhausted to take notice of the changes in my body until I got my breath back and sat up . . . then realised I was sitting on my hind legs, my front legs propping me up. I was a vulpix. But so soon? It had been a few months in between my first two transformations, but the next three had all happened so quickly. I sighed, and looked over at Taylor and the vulpix in his arms. The vulpix's eyes were wide, his mouth was hanging open, and he was staring at me.

'_S . . . Soulfire . . ._' he breathed.

'_What?_' I asked, blinking at him.

'_You . . . you're the legendary Soulfire!_' he exclaimed.

'_Uh . . . I don't think so,_' I said. '_My name's Kit, not "Soulfire"._'

'Who's Soulfire?' Taylor asked, looking down at the vulpix. The vulpix glanced at him, gave him a confused look, then turned back to me.

'_What did it say?_' he asked.

'Oh, right,' said Taylor. 'The whole wild-pokémon-can't-understand-me thing. Hold on a sec, buddy.'

He placed the vulpix on the ground, then got to his feet. He closed his eyes, stood perfectly still for a few seconds . . . and then he began to change shape, his face stretching out into a snout, his stance moving down until he stood on four thin legs, nine bushy tails sprouting out behind him, and long white hair covering his body.

'_That better?_' he smiled.

'_How did you do that!?_' I demanded. '_You . . . you can just change into a ninetales whenever you feel like it!?_'

'_Well yeah,_' he said, as if it were obvious.

'_But I . . . how come with me . . ._' I sighed. I didn't want to say it. He'd probably make fun of me if I said I couldn't control my transformations like he could.

'_Sometimes it sorta just takes over, especially if I haven't changed by choice for a while,_' he explained. '_But I can still do it when I want to, as long as I've got enough energy._'

'_Spiritfox and Soulfire . . .._'

Taylor and I turned back to the vulpix to see him staring at us wide-eyed.

'_I can't believe I've met the real-life Spiritfox and Soulfire!_' he broke into a huge smile. '_And they . . . and they saved _me_! Thank you so much!_'

He lowered his head, as if bowing to us.

'_Uh . . . no problem, but we're not "Spiritfox and Soulfire",_' I said. '_I'm Kit and that's Taylor._'

The vulpix's ears drooped. '_But you . . . you must be them . . .._' He sighed. '_Whoever you are, thank you so much for saving me. I . . . I didn't want to hurt those combuskens but I needed to find some food for my prince._'

'_Your prince?_' Taylor asked. The vulpix nodded, but before he could go on, another voice called out.

'_Taylor!_'

The three of us turned to see a purple figure running towards us from the direction from the farm. Elsie.

'_Taylor, are you all right?_' she asked worriedly, rushing past me to Taylor, rubbing her head against the bushy fur of his chest.

'_I'm fine, Elsie_,' he said, and pulled gently away from her.

'_Your father came storming back to the house saying horrible things . . ._' said Elsie quietly. '_I was scared he'd hurt you._'

Taylor smiled. '_He'd never hurt me, Elsie. He'd threaten to hurt me but he'd never actually do it. You don't have to worry about me. It's this guy who was in danger._' He gestured to the vulpix.

'_A vulpix_?' Elsie blinked at him.

'_Yeah,_' said Taylor. '_I was watching him sneak around the farm while I waited for the kid to get here, but he got himself into a bit of trouble._'

The vulpix lowered his head. '_I'm sorry._'

'_Hey, it's not your fault,_' said Taylor. '_You must have been starving. But tell us, what's your name, and what's this about a prince?_'

'_My name's Taggy,_' said the vulpix. '_I was looking for food for my prince . . . our pack was attacked by two humans and a charmeleon . . . the pack trusted me to get the prince to safety but the charmeleon caught us and . . . he really injured the prince. He's so weak . . . I needed to find some food for him or else he'll never make it back to the pack . . .._'

'_Team Magma went after _wild_ vulpixes?_' I asked. '_Why would they do that? Taggy, do you know why those humans attacked you?_'

Taggy shook his head. '_They kept shouting at us but none of us can understand human speech . . . even the charmeleon was talking in their language._'

'_We'll worry about Team Magma later,_' said Taylor. '_Show us where your prince is, and we'll take him to Eustacia. She'll heal him for you._'

Taggy's eyes lit up. '_Really?_'

Taylor nodded. '_Sure. She heals all pokémon._'

'_Then please, take my prince to her,_' said Taggy. '_Follow me, I'll show you were he is._'

He began to head away, and Taylor, Elsie and I all followed him. The vulpix prince, eh? Imagine, not only meeting one wild vulpix but two, and one of them was the prince of the pack! I started to wonder about how the wild vulpix society functioned . . . did this "prince" have the same role as a human prince, or was it something different altogether for vulpixes? Was there a strict hierarchy in the pack, or was everyone on more equal footing? I felt my mind full of questions, and for once, they weren't about Team Magma or my transformation.

'_Kit._'

I turned to see Elsie looking at me as she walked beside me.

'_This is the first time I've seen you as a vulpix,_' she said.

'_Yeah,_' I nodded. It did feel quite different seeing her while I was a vulpix. When I was a human, I was much taller than her, but now I was shorter, and I couldn't help but feel a little powerless because of that. I knew that Elsie was an ally, but it still felt strange to be smaller than her. I was used to being shorter than most other humans my age or older (and even a lot of younger ones), but being shorter than an espeon just felt so strange.

'_It's so strange to meet someone else like Taylor,_' said Elsie quietly. '_I thought he was the only one . . .._'

'_I wish people would stop saying that I'm anything like him. So what if we have the same ability? We're still completely different people!_'

'_Oh, of course,_' nodded Elsie. '_It's just that . . . you're the only other one who's both a human and a pokémon . . .._'

'_Yeah, and?_' I asked.

Elsie sighed, then shook her head. '_It's nothing._'

'_Whatever,_' I shrugged, turning my attention back away from her. Either she was really hopeless at trying the whole "mysterious psychic pokémon" cliché on, or she just had real problems trying to express herself. Either way, I doubted she actually had anything interesting to tell me. No friend of Taylor's could be particularly useful, right?

So we walked in silence for the rest of the trip. Taggy led us to a small cave, similar to the one in which Cam and I had spoken to Taylor - or "Russell", as he was then - a few days earlier. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching us, then headed inside.

At the back of the cave, eyes closed, lay a pure white pokémon. His fur was not like the creamy white of Taylor's, nor even the icy white of a seel's, but a completely pure, colourless white. If I had only glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, his colour would have thrown me off, and I never would have realised what species of pokémon he really was. But as I stared at him lying at the back of the cave, I took in his four short legs, his small snout, his curly hair between his ears . . . his six fluffy tails.

'_Here he is,_' said Taggy. '_The prince of my pack, Connor._'

'_I thought that after seeing Taylor and Kit's transformations I'd seen every strange thing about this species . . . but a _white_ vulpix?_' Elsie breathed.

The white prince raised his head and slowly opened his eyes. I drew back slightly as I saw that they were a pinkish-red, unlike the deep green of Taggy's and my own.

'_A vulpix and a ninetales I've never seen before . . ._' the prince croaked, looking at Taylor and me. Then he coughed, and cringed, shutting his eyes tightly.

'_Please Prince Connor, don't try to speak, save your energy!_' Taggy exclaimed, shaking his head. '_These are our new friends, they saved me from a terrible human, and now they're going to get you to someone who can make you feel better!_'

'_How do you expect us to get him to Eustacia?_' I asked, turning to Taylor. '_He can hardly speak, let alone walk._'

'_We'll help him out,_' said Taylor. I looked at him sceptically. It had been one thing when I'd been injured and Cam had helped me to walk; since he walked on two legs, he could use his arms to support me. But all of us were quadruped pokémon. We needed all of our limbs to walk for ourselves; how could we use them to help Connor walk?

Taylor bent down beside the prince. '_If you guys can help him get onto my back, I should be able to carry him._'

I narrowed my eyes. So now Taylor was going to be the hero and carry the prince to safety. I knew that it was the only way, and that Taylor obviously had to be the one to do it since he was a lot bigger than us and the only one capable of carrying a vulpix . . . but I really wished he didn't have to be the great saviour every time.

'_Of course,_' nodded Taggy. He turned to Connor. '_Prince, we need you to get onto his back so he can carry you._'

Connor smiled weakly. '_I know Taggy, I heard him myself._'

'_Oh,_' said Taggy, looking a little embarrassed. '_Well, let's see if we can get you up, then. Come on._'

Connor forced himself onto his shaky legs, and Taggy nudged him with his snout, pushing him towards Taylor. Elsie quickly hurried around the other side of the prince and helped too. Soon, they had managed to push Connor onto Taylor's back, and Taylor stood up.

'_You two had better walk on either side of me just to make sure he doesn't fall off,_' he said. '_I'll walk slowly so he shouldn't fall off, but it's best to be sure. I wouldn't want my prince getting hurt._'

'_So now he's _your_ prince?_' I asked.

'_Well hey, he's the prince of the vulpixes and I'm a ninetales, aren't I?_' he smiled.

'_Thank you, friend,_' Connor smiled weakly.

'_No problem,_' said Taylor. '_Now let's get you to Eustacia._'

I couldn't help but notice how friendly Dale and Dena were to us now that Taylor and I were a ninetales and a vulpix. They didn't know that we were the humans who Eustacia had allowed into her garden, and so they treated us just like any other pokémon. I almost wanted to tell them who we were, just to see what their reactions were, but on the other hand I found it interesting to watch how differently they acted towards us. Though I wouldn't admit it, they reminded me of myself. When I'd met "Russell" the ninetales, I'd befriended him because I hadn't realised that he was Taylor. Now that I knew, I looked at him in the exact same way I did his human self; as an annoying jerk who unfortunately possessed the same ability as I did.

We headed into the Extant Cave and Tama guided us down to the river. It was a bit of a struggle for all five of us to fit comfortably on Porter's back, especially since all of us but Elsie were a little uncomfortable about the water (Taylor tried to act cool but I was sure that he must have been as nervous as me deep down). We finally managed to fit on the lapras's back, and he carried us into the garden.

'_Wow, look! Vulpixes!_'

The wild pokémon gathered around us eagerly as we climbed off Porter's back, helping Connor back onto Taylor's back so that he could carry him to Eustacia.

'_We don't see vulpixes come here very often!_'

'_And wow, look at that one! He's white!_'

'_But he looks so sick . . . quick, let's take him to Eustacia!_'

The wild pokémon all ran along beside as we headed towards the small cave at the back of the garden. As we neared it, a few pokémon came out of the cave curiously . . . a marill, a taillow, a pinsir, and . . . Cam!

'_Kit!_' Cam exclaimed, rushing out to meet me. '_Why are you- oh no, is he hurt?_' He looked up at Connor worriedly.

'_Yeah, but he should be OK once we get him to Eustacia,_' said Taylor. Cam nodded, and stepped out of the way to let Taylor, Connor, Taggy and Elsie inside. Then he turned to me.

'_However did you find those two vulpixes?_' he asked.

'_The brown one turned up at Taylor's farm,_' I said, following the others into the cave. '_It's kind of a long story what happened then, but he then led us to the white one. Apparently he's the vulpix prince._'

'_Wow . . ._' breathed Cam. Then he smiled. '_It's so great that you've found some vulpixes!_'

I nodded. '_I know. Hopefully they'll take us to their pack so we can meet even more of them._'

I turned my attention back to the others, and saw that they had taken Connor off Taylor's back, and he was lying in front of Eustacia. She bent down and looked over him, then turned to us.

'_He is very ill,_' she said. '_It may take some time to heal him._'

'_Please,_' said Taggy. '_Is there anything I can do to help?_'

'_He is very hungry,_' said Eustacia. '_Pick some of the berries in this garden for him. He appears to be of a gentle nature, so I would suggest picking him some rawst berries and aguav berries._'

'_Rawst and aguav, got it,_' nodded Taggy.

'_You look very hungry yourself,_' said Eustacia. '_Please, eat some of the berries in my garden. They are very filling, and healthy for all pokémon._'

'_Thank you so much,_' said Taggy. '_I'll go and get some berries right now._'

He turned and headed out into the garden, and I decided to go with him. I'd heard a bit about these berries that pokémon liked so much, and even though humans could eat them too, I'd never actually tried one. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Taggy picked a whole bunch of little green speckled berries, which he told me were rawst berries, and some larger green berries, aguav berries. It felt a little strange to be being taught about plants from a pokémon, but since they liked these berries so much, who better to teach me? I tasted a few of the berries, and found myself taking a liking to the spicy cheri berries and figy berries. Once we had collected enough berries for Connor, we headed back into the small cave where he was lying. He already seemed to be a lot better - Eustacia must have used some of her healing powers on him - but he was still starving. He gratefully began eating the berries.

'_You should come here whenever you can't find any food,_' said Cam. '_Eustacia's garden is always full of the tastiest berries!_'

'_Yeah, they might not be quite as filling as eggs, but they taste good and they've got great healing powers too,_' said Taylor. '_But next time you're after eggs, don't go breaking into the torchic coop, just come see me and I'll sneak some out for you._'

'_Thank you, Taylor,_' said Taggy. '_I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble._'

'_Did you say "Taylor"?_' Connor asked, and we all turned to him. '_Oh, I'm so sorry . . . you saved me and I haven't even asked for your names! Please, forgive me._'

'_Hey, no problem,_' said Taylor, shaking his head. '_I'm Taylor, and these are Elsie, Cam, and the kid._'

'_Kit,_' I said firmly, glaring at him. He just smiled.

'_Taylor and Kit . . ._' breathed Connor. '_But you . . . don't you know how worried your parents are about you!?_'

I blinked at him. What on earth was he talking about? We hadn't even told Connor that we were humans yet; how could he possibly know our parents? And even if for some freak reason he did, my parents were at work; they had no idea I was even out here. And as for Taylor . . . well, his father didn't exactly seem like he'd ever be worried about him.

'_What are you talking about?_' I asked.

'_It can't be a coincidence,_' said Connor, shaking his head. '_You must be the same Taylor and Kit who disappeared from our pack._'

'_Your pack?_' I asked. '_Uhh, I was never part of any vulpix pack. If we've got the same names as some pokémon who disappeared from your pack then sorry but it _is_ just a coincidence._'

'_Will you at least give him a chance to tell us a bit more?_' Taylor said irritably, then turned back to Connor. '_Tell us about the Taylor and Kit from your pack._'

'_I never knew them personally,_' said Connor. '_They were about the same age as I am, but when I was young I was very sick so I didn't interact with most of the pack and just kept to myself. But now that I'm the prince, I of course need to know everything about all the members of the pack. So I soon found out about these two . . . Taylor the ninetales and Kit the vulpix, just like you two . . . it was the first day their parents let them go off to play in the bush by themselves . . . but they never returned. Many believe that they were captured by humans._'

'_OK, that's a very big coincidence and all, but that's not us,_' I said, shaking my head. '_I think I'd know if I'd been part of a wild vulpix pack and had been captured by humans. It's just a coincidence._'

'_But you both live with humans . . . you . . . you both _are_ humans . . ._' said Taggy. He turned to Connor. '_Prince Connor, I didn't tell you earlier because you were so ill, but . . . when Taylor and Kit found me, they were humans! I saw them change into pokémon right before my eyes. They . . . they must be Spiritfox and Soulfire!_'

'_First we're missing members of some wild vulpix pack, now we're these "Spiritfox and Soulfire" things?_' I moaned. '_Come on, this is getting stupid. I know who I am._'

Taylor turned to me. '_Oh do you?_'

I drew back slightly, shocked by his challenge. I remembered sitting on my bed at home, struggling to decide how to portray myself in my self-portrait . . . I shook my head. That had nothing to do with this. '_Of course I do._'

'_I think you'd both better come with me to see my pack,_' said Connor. '_There's a lot we've got to discuss._'


	20. Chapter 19: Spiritfox and Soulfire

Hi everyone, sorry about the long wait. Looks like I've reverted to my old habits. I thought it would be a good idea to release Chapter Nineteen today because it's my friend's twentieth birthday tomorrow and thus today is his last day of being nineteen. Yes, this is the kind of logic that decides my releases. Anyway, everyone wish Luke a happy birthday, especially those of you who've read _Team Yellow's Pokélog_ since his character in that was one of the stars, and apparently the most popular according to some poll I did on my (now offline) _Pokémon_ website. Speaking of _Pokémon_ websites, I'd really really really recommend going to pokemon2004.jp, as today a NEW pokémon was revealed . . . well, at least its silhouette and its name were. Still, it's pretty exciting. 

The Mad Tortoise: I'll hopefully get around to reading your fanfic sometime over the next few days . . . sorry I didn't get to it sooner! 

**Chapter Nineteen - Spiritfox and Soulfire**

We waited for about another hour to make sure that Connor was healthy enough, then headed out to visit the wild vulpix pack. Elsie came with us, and Cam decided to join us too. I was glad to have a friend there with me. Although the two vulpixes seemed nice enough, Connor's claim that we were lost members of his pack, and Taggy's claim that we were "Spiritfox and Soulfire", just made me feel a bit uncomfortable about them. I knew that I'd never been part of a wild pack - after all, it was only the fourth time I'd become a vulpix! - and I knew my name wasn't "Soulfire". Why couldn't they just forget about it? What made it twice as annoying was the way Taylor kept acting so interested in their little theories. It seemed that the main reason he was going to see this pack was that he was interested in hearing their stupid stories.

After about ten minutes, Connor and Taggy stopped in front of a tunnel made in the edge of a small hill. Had we not stopped in front of it, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it; it was surrounded by shrubs and bushes, and grass hung down over the entrance, masking it to the unobservant.

'_Down here_,' said Taggy, and he and Connor ducked down into the hole. I paused, then followed them in. They led me through the tunnel for about two metres, then the passage opened up, and I found myself in a wide open chamber, with similar tunnels leading into it from several directions.

'_Prince_!'

I opened my eyes wide as three young vulpixes and a ninetales rushed over to Connor and started fussing over him.

'_I'm fine_,' he insisted. He gestured to us. '_Taggy and these new friends of mine helped me out_.'

The ninetales looked over at us and cocked her head. '_You two aren't from our pack . . .._'

'_No_,' I said. '_We met Taggy out at-_'

'_Kit!_'

My ears twitched at the sound of my name, and I turned to see where the voice had come from. I saw two adult ninetales, a male and a female, coming out of one of the other tunnels and stepping slowly towards me, their red eyes wide.

'_Can it . . . can it be . . ._' the male breathed. '_Our Kit has come back to us!_'

The two ninetales broke into a run, rushing straight over to me and bending down, rubbing their noses against my head. I stepped back, shaking them off, but they only moved closer to me, continuing to rub their heads against me.

'_Oh Kit, it's so good to see you again_!' the female said tearily.

'_We thought you'd never come back . . ._' said the male.

'_Who _are_ you_!?' I exclaimed, shaking my head rapidly to push them away. '_I don't even know you!_'

The female gasped, and her ears drooped, her nine tails fell down to the ground weakly.

'_She doesn't even know us . . ._' she sniffed.

'_Now now Violette, don't be like that,_' said the male, and rubbed his head against hers for a moment. '_It's been many years, and she was very young . . . she might not even remember us. You knew that this might happen. At least be grateful that we've found her again._'

'_No, you don't understand,_' I cut in before this got out of hand. '_I've never been a part of this pack. I seriously don't know you guys._'

The female ninetales sighed and lowered her head, and the male gave her a sympathetic look before turning and looking to his right. I realised that there was more commotion going on there, and I turned to see two more ninetales fussing over Taylor in much the same way these two had with me.

'_Taylor, you don't know how worried we've been! We're just so glad you're home again, son!_'

Son?

Something crazy was going on here.

I turned back to the two ninetales in front of me. '_Don't tell me you think you're my parents._'

'_We _are_ your parents, Kit!_' the female exclaimed. '_I . . . I can't believe you . . . you've forgotten us . . .._'

'_I haven't "forgotten" you 'cause I never met you to begin with,_' I said. '_Look, you guys can't be my parents. I know who my parents are and besides, I'm not even a vulpix, I . . . I'm a human, and my parents are humans too! I'm sorry about your daughter and everything, but I'm not her._'

'_I'd recognise my own daughter anywhere,_' said the female. '_And I knew, the moment I saw you, that you're her. You're my Kit._'

'_OK, yes, my name is Kit, but it's just a coincidence that I've got the same name as her, you guys aren't my parents, I'm sorry,_' I sighed, exasperated.

'_You think it's just a coincidence that both of us have the same names as their missing children, _and_ both of us look exactly like them?_' I turned to see Taylor looking over at us.

'_Oh come on, don't tell me you believe that those two are your parents,_' I gestured to the two ninetales beside him.

'_I don't disbelieve it,_' he said, and I moaned. This guy was even more gullible than I'd thought. Wanting to believe in legends was one thing, but this was just ridiculous. He knew who his parents were, he knew that despite his ability to become a ninetales, he was still really a human. He knew that. Didn't he?

'_There's obviously a lot of confusion going on here,_' said Connor. '_Why don't we go to a private chamber and discuss this slowly and carefully?_' He turned to the other vulpixes and ninetales who had begun to crowd around. '_I know you're all curious about this, but please just give us some time to discuss it alone. I'd like to be left alone with Robi, Violette, Kane, Lailie, and my new friends._'

The vulpixes and ninetales nodded their agreement, and Connor gestured to us to follow him. He led us down one of the other tunnels into a smaller chamber.

'_Maybe I should stay out here,_' said Cam uncertainly. '_This is a vulpix and ninetales matter. It isn't really anything to do with me._'

'_Cam,_' I said firmly. '_You're my friend, and that means this has plenty to do with you. Besides, I don't really want to be stuck in a room with just Taylor, Elsie and those crazy ninetales who think they're my parents. Come on, I want you to be there._'

Cam broke into a smile, and nodded. '_Thanks Kit._'

I smiled back and led him into the chamber, sitting down.

'_So you guys all live underground?_' I asked.

'_Yes,_' nodded Connor. '_We've built this tunnel system and found it to be very effective._'

'_I thought it was pikachus that lived in tunnels like this,_' I shrugged.

'_I've heard that they sometimes live in similar structures, yes, but we've found it to be just as effective for vulpixes and ninetales_,' said Connor. '_All of us grew up here, and we've come to really enjoy life underground._' He paused. '_Now, there's obviously a lot we need to clear up here. Robi, could you explain to our friends what happened to your children? I know it's hard to talk about, but please._'

'_It's fine,_' the ninetales who was claiming to be my father nodded. He looked over at us. '_It was quite a long time ago now, which is why we were beginning to think we might never see you again._' He took a deep breath. '_Our daughter Kit, and Kane and Lailie's son Taylor, well . . . they were always very curious little vulpixes, always wanting to venture out of the tunnels. Of course, it's too dangerous out there for young vulpixes so we never let them go out alone until . . . well, Taylor evolved at a pretty young age, and he was very eager to learn to battle. So we taught him a few battle moves, and he mastered them very quickly, so we thought that he'd be able to survive out there pretty well on his own, and . . . and that he'd be able to protect Kit too. So we finally told them that they could go out to play on their own, and . . . and they never came home._'

His mate sniffed and shut her eyes, and he rubbed his head against her comfortingly.

'_I'm sorry about your children,_' I said slowly, not wanting to offend them. '_But we're not them._'

'_How do you know that, kid?_' Taylor demanded.

'_Uh, I'll tell you how I know,_' I said. '_Come back to my house and I'll show you my birth certificate. That's how I know. I may be a vulpix right now but I was born a human._'

'_And where do you think this vulpix that you are now came from?_' Taylor asked. '_You're the one who kept going on about how it's biologically impossible to be both a human and a pokémon. So if you're a human, then who's this vulpix I'm looking at right now, eh? If you're really a human, then where did this vulpix come from? Who says she doesn't have her own parents?_'

'_So you're telling me that I'm not even myself right now, is that it?_' I demanded. '_First you tell me that you're a ninetales and a human at the same time, now you're telling me I'm two completely different beings with separate parents? That makes even less sense than being both of them at once!_'

'_Mentally you're both of them at once, but physically you're two very different bodies,_' said Taylor. '_That isn't your human body. It's something different altogether. So if it doesn't have its own parents then where else did it come from?_'

'_OK, then explain to me I can have been born with two different mothers,_' I said. '_Only one of them can have given birth to me. What you're saying makes no sense whatsoever. Your theories just get stupider and stupider each time!_'

'_I don't understand, what's all this talk about humans anyway?_' the ninetales who claimed to be Taylor's mother asked.

'_Taggy told me that when he met these two, they were humans,_' said Connor. '_And that they changed into their current forms in front of him. Is this the truth?_'

'_Yeah,_' I nodded. '_And that's exactly why we can't be your children. Because we're really humans!_'

'_You mean . . . like Spiritfox and Soulfire?_' Taylor's "mother" asked.

'_OK, I'm getting sick of this,_' I said, shaking my head. '_Who are Spiritfox and Soulfire and why do you keep going on about them?_'

'_You haven't heard the legend of Spiritfox and Soulfire?_' Robi, the one who said he was my father, asked.

'_Oh great, it's another legend,_' I moaned. '_On second thought, save it. I don't care._'

'_Spiritfox and Soulfire, are they . . . are they the ninetales and vulpix who became humans?_' Taylor asked, ignoring me.

'_Yes,_' nodded Connor. '_So you have heard the legend before?_'

'_Only the brief version,_' said Taylor. '_Can you tell it to us in a bit more detail?_'

'_Oh great,_' I muttered.

'_There isn't a lot of detail to this legend,_' said Connor. '_Although vulpixes and ninetales have passed it down from generation to generation, many of the details have been lost in that transition. But the legend tells of a young ninetales named Spiritfox and a young vulpix named Soulfire. They were best friends, and were also very curious and playful, just like Kane and Lailie's son Taylor and Robi and Violette's daughter Kit. The more I think about it, the more you two really do seem to have in common with the figures in the legend._'

'_Oh, lucky us,_' I said sarcastically.

'_The legend says that Spiritfox and Soulfire had dreams and ambitions that reached far beyond the capacity of a ninetales and a vulpix to achieve,_' Connor continued. '_They weren't interested in battling like other pokémon were, they were more interested in creating things. Now one day the two of them were out playing when they came across a fire stone. Now since Spiritfox was already a ninetales, he didn't need to worry about the fire stone making him evolve, so he went and picked the stone up and brought it over to Soulfire. He told her that maybe she should use it to evolve as well, but she said that she didn't want to become a ninetales, that she wanted to become something different altogether. When pokémon evolve, they grow stronger in battles, but she wasn't interested in battles, she was interested in growing stronger in the mind. When Spiritfox heard this, he put down the fire stone and admitted that he wanted the same thing, and that when he had evolved, he'd hoped that he could evolve into something much like that. Of course, he had only managed to evolve into a ninetales._

'_Now as they discussed this, they heard a crackling sound, and turned to see the fire stone burning up, and then the flames died out, and all that was left was a pile of ash. The two were so shocked at this that they both reached out to touch the ash, and as soon as they did, their bodies began to change shape. They lost their fur, their tails, their sharp teeth and claws, but they gained hands that could mould, and strong minds that could create. With their newfound abilities, they built cities and created many unbelievable inventions. They had children, and their children had children, and soon their kind was as numerous as vulpixes and ninetales. Spiritfox and Soulfire were the first humans._

'_Most of the vulpixes and ninetales in this pack look up to Spiritfox and Soulfire, they see them as heroes. But that's only because they've never been told the rest of the story. The rest of the story has almost been forgotten, because no one likes a legend that puts you to blame. But here's how it goes. Many years later, Spiritfox and Soulfire decided to return to their original families. But when they got there, their home was nowhere to be found. In its place was nothing but concrete, asphalt, and machines. Their home had been destroyed by humans, by themselves. Their families and friends had perished under the power of the humans. And what's more, when they returned to their beloved cities, they found that humans had not only destroyed the homes of wild pokémon, but they had begun to capture the pokémon and enslave them, to force them into fighting senseless battles. Although Spiritfox and Soulfire had once been pokémon themselves, their curiosity and their eagerness to change had caused them to turn against pokémon, to destroy their homes and enslave their bodies._'

I felt ready to explode, to yell at him that humans didn't enslave pokémon, that they helped them. I was no pokémon trainer, but I knew that trainers didn't capture pokémon to fight "senseless battles". They caught them to help them harness their powers. Everyone knew that wild pokémon never grew as strong as trained ones. It wasn't because of enslavement, it was because of a mutual understanding in how to enhance their powers.

But I stopped myself from telling Connor that. The other part of his story was different altogether. Humans were always destroying the homes of pokémon. I'd heard that the Genesis Bushland used to be a lot bigger than it was now, and that it used to cover all of Spectrum City. But humans had knocked it down, pulled it apart, to build their city in its place. I couldn't even imagine how many pokémon must have perished in that development, let alone in all the others around the world. So many species of pokémon had become endangered because of humans. The first that came to mind were snorlaxes; they had once been quite common, but now that there were hardly any forests large enough for them to survive in, they were extremely rare. And what about the species that had become completely extinct? No one really knew a solid explanation for why pokémon like kabutos and omanytes had become extinct, but surely it must have had something to do with humans . . ..

As stupid as his story sounded, it had a moral to it. And not all legends were created to explain the unexplainable; many were created to teach. Maybe if I started looking at legends for what they meant instead of what they actually said . . . maybe I'd start to find some real answers.

'_I can see what you mean about Kit and Taylor being like Soulfire and Spiritfox_,' said Cam. '_But the pokémon in the legend turned into humans. Kit and Taylor were humans who turned into pokémon._'

'_Don't be so sure about that, Cam_,' said Taylor. '_How do I know that Kane and Lailie aren't really my parents? How do I know that I wasn't actually born a pokémon but I became a human somewhere along the line? I've been able to become a ninetales since as far as I can remember. Maybe I've been one forever._'

I moaned. '_Oh come on, that's just stupid! OK, yes, it's very strange that these ninetales think they're our parents, but if we're really pokémon, isn't it just as strange that there are humans who also think they're our parents?_'

'_Of course it is_,' said Taylor. '_I'm not saying I'm definitely Kane and Lailie's son. I'm just keeping my mind open to possibilities. That's what your problem is. You rule options out without any proof that they're not possible._'

'_I don't know how any of this is possible_,' said Connor. '_I'm very confused by you two. But I don't think we're going to figure out the truth by what we know already. We need to find out more before-_'

'_Prince!_'

Connor was cut off as a young vulpix rushed into the chamber.

'_I'm sorry to interrupt_,' she said, bowing her head. '_But there are some humans outside, and they saw some of us come into the tunnel and they've sent their trained pokémon in after us!_'

'_What!?_' Connor exclaimed.

'_I think they're trying to capture us_,' said the vulpix hurriedly. '_We've gotta fight them off!_'

'_Stay calm, everyone_,' said Connor. '_We should be able to come to an agreement_.'

'_Don't worry about it_,' said Taylor, getting up. '_I'll handle them_.'

I narrowed my eyes. So you're gonna be a hero again, are you? Not by yourself you're not. I got up and headed for the chamber's exist.

'_What do you think you're doing, kid?_' Taylor asked. '_As if you'll be able to do anything against them! Leave it to me._'

'_Yeah right, like you could do anything to stop them without me!_' I said defiantly.

'_Look, I'm not gonna waste time arguing with you, so let me just remind you that it was me who beat all three of Team Magma's pokémon,_' said Taylor. '_Keep that in mind._' He pushed past me and headed out into the main chamber, and I glared at him, grinding my teeth.

'_Wait, Taylor!_' Elsie cried, rushing after him. '_Don't go out there alone, you'll get hurt!_'

Good, it'll serve him right. I narrowed my eyes and trudged out after them, the others following behind.

At the main entrance to the tunnel system were a croconaw and a trapinch. Great, just what we needed. I might have been able to stand a chance against a bug-type or a grass-type, but water and ground? This was going to be tricky. I took a look around. Even though there were so many vulpixes and ninetales here, it would be hard to battle against pokémon who had the advantage over us. Plus, these vulpixes and ninetales didn't look very strong; they probably didn't battle very much. I didn't want to believe it, but Taylor stood a better chance than any of them.

'_Which one should we go for, Croconaw?_' the trapinch asked his companion, as the two of them looked around at all of us.

'_One of the strong ones,_' the croconaw replied. '_William and Katashi need the strongest pokémon they can get for the tournament._'

'_Sorry guys, but your trainers aren't catching any of these vulpixes or ninetales,_' said Taylor, walking proudly over to the two intruders like the hero he thought he was.

'_Just watch us,_' smiled the croconaw. '_We'll bring _you_ back to our trainers!_'

Elsie rushed out and stood in front of Taylor protectively. '_You stay away from him! You'll have to fight me before getting to him._'

'_Elsie, don't be so silly,_' hissed Taylor. '_I can beat these guys easily!_'

'_Please, stop this,_' said Connor, shaking his head. '_Can't we settle this without fighting?_'

'_Hey, look at that one, Croconaw!_' said the trapinch, his small dark eyes opening wide as they stared at Connor. '_He's white! I bet William and Katashi would love that one!_'

'_So what if he's white?_' Croconaw asked. '_Just look at him, he's weak. Let's go for that one._' He gestured at Taylor, and Elsie crouched down into a battle pose, her eyes narrowing and then glowing a bright white. Croconaw suddenly cried out and put reached his short arms up to his head, as if in pain.

'_What happened, Croconaw!?_' Trapinch exclaimed.

'_My head!_' Croconaw moaned.

'_That's called a Psychic attack,_' said Taylor. '_Now why don't you guys get out of here before she has to do it again?_'

The croconaw shook his head, forcing himself back to his senses. '_We're not going anywhere 'til we've caught some of you for our trainers!_'

'_Please,_' begged Connor. '_Why do you have to do this to us? We've done nothing to you. We're a peaceful community, we don't want to fight._'

'_Then it'll be all the more easier to catch you!_' said Croconaw. '_Enough talk, we've got some battling to do!_'

With that, he ran towards Elsie and Taylor, his large jaw opened almost as if he were going to swallow them. Taylor grinned, then shot out in a blur of white, leaping over Elsie and slamming into Croconaw, knocking him to the ground.

'_Croconaw!_' Trapinch cried, and stepped nervously towards his companion. The reptile squirmed under Taylor's weight, then focussed himself and spat a water gun straight into Taylor's face. I watched the ninetales cringe, the pain becoming obvious on his face no matter how hard he tried to look tough.

I found myself torn. A part of me was cheering the croconaw on, telling him to go for it and spray as much water as he could at that jerk, to teach him a lesson, to show him that he wasn't as tough as he thought he was. But another part of me was horrified. Just the sight of the water-type attack scared me. I was afraid enough of just ordinary water; rivers, ponds . . . actual water attacks were so much more than that, they weren't just water, they were water manipulated into doing damage. I could hardly even imagine how much they must hurt, and although I didn't want to admit it, a part of me really admired Taylor in that moment. He wasn't running away. He wasn't trying to stop the attack, he was forcing himself to take it full force, in a battle he shouldn't even have been involved in. He was trying to protect these vulpixes and ninetales who he didn't even know. It didn't matter to him who they were. Just like the time he had saved Cam and me from Team Magma, like the time he had saved Cam and me from the shedinjas . . ..

He may not have been my friend, but I couldn't forget that he was my ally. As much as we argued, as rude as we were to each other, we were the only two who had this strange ability, and we had to protect each other if we were ever going to find any answers about it.

Before I really knew what I was doing, I was acting on my thoughts, and rushing out towards Croconaw. Something inside of me was telling me to fight, and I was sure that I would win, even against a water-type.

But before I could even reach the reptile, something slammed into my back, and I was thrown to the ground. I took a second to gather my thoughts, then looked up to see Trapinch standing over me. He opened his huge mouth, and one look at his razor-like teeth was all it took to send me leaping back to my feet. I faced the trapinch, watching him for his next move.

'_What are you doing, you idiot!?_' Taylor yelled at me. '_You know you're not gonna stand a chance against these guys! Just let me handle it, jeez!_'

I felt rage building up inside of me, and I didn't care about protecting Taylor anymore. All I cared about was proving to him that I _did _stand a chance, that I _could _beat these guys, that I wasn't as weak as he thought I was. No matter what he said, I was going to battle, and I was going to win.


	21. Chapter 20: Humantrained vs Human heart

**Chapter Twenty - Human-trained vs Human heart**

'_Get out of the way you moron, you're only gonna make this more difficult!_' Taylor snapped at me, and I narrowed my eyes further, glaring at the trapinch. I'd show Taylor that I wasn't useless, that I could battle just as well as he could. He wasn't going to steal the glory again.

Trapinch glared at me through his tiny dark eyes, then put his jaws down to the ground and began shovelling dirt, burrowing into the soil until he was out of sight. Was he trying to escape? Surely he wouldn't be backing out already . . ..

'_Be careful Kit, that's a Dig attack,_' came Elsie's voice.

'_I know that!_' I snapped back at her. I'd seen Numel use this move before. It had just . . . slipped my mind, that was all. She didn't have to act so cocky like she knew what was going on and I didn't.

I felt movement beneath me, and looked down to see a trail appearing as clumps of dirt were shifted out of place. So, Trapinch was tunnelling towards me. Well, I'd be ready for him. As the trail came closer and closer, I stepped back farther and farther, always far enough away to be ready for the attack.

I suddenly felt my tails brush against strands of grass, and I instinctively turned to see what was behind me. I opened my eyes wide as I saw a curtain of grass hanging down over a ninetales-sized opening. That little rascal had backed me all the way up to the entrance of the tunnel! I couldn't let him chase me outside. Down here, it might have been cramped, but out there, his trainers were waiting, and most likely, they'd have a bunch of strong pokémon with them.

I heard the ground in front of me give way, and quickly turned back to see Trapinch shooting up out of the dirt. Fragments of sand and dust flew at me, and I raised a paw to cover my eyes. It hadn't been a direct hit, but the dirt blasting into my face had certainly thrown me off. When I lowered my paw and opened my eyes, Trapinch was bearing his massive jaws at me. I gulped, and took another step back. He advanced on me, and I stepped back again.

Come on Kit, can't you see what he's doing? He's pushing you back out of the den into the open so his trainers can get at you! You can't let him do this, you've gotta fight back!

But the serrated edges of those gaping jaws were too much for me. His disproportionate head meant that when he opened his mouth, it not only served as a weapon and a scare tactic, but also as a shield. It was impossible to get to his small body while those jaws were in the way; in a tunnel this narrow, there was only forward or backward. Forward, into Trapinch's jaws, or backward, into the open where the trainers were waiting for me.

I had no choice. I didn't want to face those trainers, but running straight into those teeth would be crazy. If I went out into the open, I'd at least have some sort of a chance; maybe I'd be able to make use of the wider space, and if I couldn't beat him, at least out there I'd have a better opportunity to escape.

So I backed out until I felt the grass run over my back, my head, and finally down my face. I was outside.

'Hey check it out, it's a vulpix!'

At the sound of the human voice, I turned to see its owner. I found myself looking at two boys, around eighteen or so, wearing long trousers, jackets, walking boots, and carrying large backpacks. At the sides of their belts were a series of red and white metal balls. So these were Trapinch and Croconaw's trainers . . ..

I turned my attention back to Trapinch. He was still approaching me, but thankfully he had closed his jaws. I lowered my head and tensed my body, ready to fight back.

'Great job, Trapinch! Now, use Sand-Attack!'

Sand-Attack? I strained my mind to try to remember if I knew what that move did. But before I could come up with any answers, Trapinch had dug his jaws into the dirt and flicked it in my face. Caught off guard, I didn't have time to cover my eyes, and I cried out as they stung horribly. When I tried to look back at Trapinch, my vision was hazy. Though I could make out his shape, it was blurred and I couldn't be sure if he was really where I thought he was. I blinked a few times, but nothing changed.

'_Kit!_'

Hearing my name, I squinted in the direction it had come from, and saw three figures rushing out of the entrance to the den. A green one, a white one and a purple one. I squinted harder and finally realised that they were Cam, Connor and Elsie.

'Woah, check it out, a white vulpix!'

'What on earth are a kecleon and an espeon doing down there?'

'Who cares? I want that white vulpix! Trapinch, forget about the brown one, go for that white one!'

'_I'm on it!_' Trapinch nodded, and turned his attention to Connor.

No way. You can't pick on Connor . . . I might not be the best battler around, but at least I'm healthy. Even after Eustacia had healed him, Connor was still recovering, and from what I'd seen and heard, he was never particularly healthy to begin with. What ever happened to the pokémon trainers' ideals of fairness and understanding? Battling is one thing. Catching pokémon is one thing. But picking on pokémon that are weak? That's just plain low.

Trapinch advanced on Connor, and the white prince only looked at the trained pokémon pleadingly.

'_Why can't we try to sort something out without fighting?_' he asked. '_Surely there's no need for this!_'

'_There's plenty need for it! William knows what's best, and nothing you can say is gonna stop me fulfilling his orders to take you down!_' Trapinch opened his wide jaws in a grin.

'_Is it because you're not strong enough to take on any of the others that you have to pick on someone who's sick?_' I asked. If I could play on Trapinch's pride, maybe I'd be able to stop him from attacking Connor. '_What's the matter Trapinch, can't take on someone who actually has battling experience?_'

'_I'm not listening to you any more than the espeon._' Trapinch stepped closer to Connor. '_I'm gonna do exactly what William tells me, not what any of you stupid wild pokémon think I should do!_'

With that, he opened his jaws wide and charged on his tiny legs. But before he had managed to get anywhere near Connor, a purple glow suddenly surrounded the trapinch, and he began to float into the sky.

'_Aaahh! What's going on!?_' Trapinch exclaimed, thrashing about in mid-air. I forced myself to turn my startled eyes away from his floating body to look around for what had happened. I caught sight of the purple figure that was Elsie, and saw two glowing spheres in place of her eyes. Suddenly she flicked her head to the side, and Trapinch was sent flying, crashing into a tree several metres away.

'_I . . . I must thank you for stopping his attack, but isn't there a way to solve this without violence?_' Connor looked up at Elsie.

'_I wish there were,_' Elsie told him. '_But we can't negotiate with these pokémon. They're trained to obey their humans, and we have no way to communicate with the humans while Taylor and Kit are in their pokémon forms._'

'Trapinch! Get up! Show that espeon who's boss around here! Full-strength Faint Attack!'

Trapinch shook his head and got to his feet. Narrowing his beady eyes, he charged at Elsie. The espeon lowered her head, bracing herself for the attack.

Trapinch laughed. '_Let's see your psychic powers dodge this!_'

Suddenly his body became a blur, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the effects of Sand-Attack, but I thought I saw him split up into several copies of himself. Elsie raised her head and darted it around, but there was no way she could keep track of all those copies. Before any of us quite knew what was happening, the copies had disappeared and Trapinch was knocking her down from behind. She fell to the ground, and Trapinch stood on her back proudly.

'Now, Trapinch! Finish it off with Crunch!'

'_You got it!_' Trapinch opened his jaws wide and slammed his head down, and I had to lower my head, shutting my eyes tightly as I heard Elsie cry out in pain. Why are you just standing there, Kit? Why aren't you doing anything to help her? Listen to that cry, how can you just ignore that?

But when I raised my head again, Elsie was lying on the ground, her eyes closed, still. The attack had completely knocked her out.

All I could do was stare. How had that little trapinch been able to drain all of Elsie's energy so easily? But more importantly . . . how had I been able to just stand there and let her faint? I hardly knew Elsie, and I didn't consider her to be my friend, but surely that didn't matter . . . surely I should have tried to help her just as I knew I would have tried to help Cam if he'd been in the same situation. So why hadn't I?

'So are you gonna catch it?'

'Nah, you can get an eevee easily just from a pet shop. I'd rather grab that white vulpix. That's something you won't find on sale _anywhere_!'

'_Elsie!_' I turned to see a cream-coloured figure rushing out from the vulpix den. Though I couldn't make out his features, the voice told me it was Taylor. '_Elsie, no!_' Reaching the unconscious espeon, he bent down and nudged her with his snout. '_Elsie, wake up, come on!_' When there was no response, he took a deep breath and stood up straight. He turned to me. '_This is all your fault._'

'_What!?_' I exclaimed. 'My _fault!? It was that stupid trapinch that did it to her! How the heck is any of this my fault!?_'

Taylor stormed over to me, and when he reached me his red eyes glared down at me fiercely. I took a step back. It was only at that moment that I realised just how much bigger than me he was. More than twice my height, he practically towered over me.

'_I _told_ you to say out of this and let me handle it, but _no_, you had to try to show off your skills, of which you have _none_, and she came out here to try to protect you, knowing you'd do something stupid, so she put herself in danger to keep you safe!_'

'_You have no idea! You were down in that cave the whole time, you have _no idea_ what happened out here! She did it to protect _Connor_, not me!_'

Taylor continued to glare at me for a moment, then glanced over at Connor.

'_I'm so sorry,_' Connor shook his head. '_I'm so sorry!_'

I swallowed. I knew it wasn't Connor's fault, and I shouldn't have put the blame on him. But I didn't believe that it was my fault either. Elsie hadn't had to try to protect me. I could have handled that trapinch on my own, for sure . . . no, you're fooling yourself, Kit. You know you couldn't never have done anything against that trained pokémon.

'Trapinch, what are you waiting for! Hit that white vulpix with a Dig attack!'

As Trapinch dug his way underground, Taylor darted over to Connor.

'_Be careful, prince,_' he said, eyeing the ground for traces of Trapinch's path. '_He'll leap out of the ground and surprise you. This move is hard to avoid. Cam, you'd better get out of the way._'

'_But . . . what about you two?_' Cam asked.

'_Don't worry, I'll try to take the hit myself, the prince will be fine, and I can handle a Dig attack_.'

I narrowed my eyes. What, so now you're gonna try to protect Connor and do exactly what Elsie did to get herself knocked out? You think you're so much stronger than her, do you? I just hope that Dig attack knocks you out so you'll shut up. I just hope those trainers capture you so I don't have to put up with you anymore. I don't want to have to listen to you blame me for no reason again. I'm sick of tolerating you.

Suddenly the ground shattered beneath Connor and Taylor. Taylor pushed the prince out of the way as Trapinch shot out from the ground, covering the ninetales in dirt. He coughed and his body shook, but he managed to retain his balance. You'd better try harder than that next time, Trapinch. Knock that stuck-up brat out cold.

'Trapinch, Faint Attack!'

Trapinch turned to Connor, and I opened my eyes wide as copies of the trapinch appeared all around the white vulpix. Connor looked around, eyes wide, mouth open, and tried to back away. That moron Taylor had stopped Connor from getting hit by the Dig attack, but now the prince was wide open for Trapinch's next attack.

The copies disappeared, and the real Trapinch slammed into Connor, knocking him to the ground.

'_Prince!_' Taylor cried out.

'Pokéball, go!'

Suddenly a red and white ball hit Connor's back, and his body dematerialised into red light. He was sucked inside the ball, and it dropped to the ground, still.

'Yeah! I got it! Great work, Trapinch!'

'_Connor . . ._' I breathed. No, we couldn't let Connor get taken away by these guys! He had more answers to the questions that were spinning around my head than anyone. I had to stop them from taking him.

I ran at the still pokéball, ducking past Trapinch and grabbing the sphere in my teeth.

'Hey! Give that back! Trapinch, after that vulpix!'

'Wait, I'll handle this. Water Gun!'

Water?

Something slammed into my back, and fell to the ground instantly before I could even registered what I'd been hit by. It hadn't been a physical attack, or an object. No, it had been a torrent of water.

My whole body felt cold, weak. It wasn't that the attack hurt, it just seemed to completely dampen my energy, wash it away. I felt dizzy, and the pokéball slipped out of my jaws. As my head fell weakly to the ground, I caught a glimpse of Croconaw standing at the entrance to the cave. I had completely forgotten about him. And now . . . now it was too late for me to do anything. I couldn't even move, let alone pick up that pokéball and escape. I'd failed. Just like I'd failed Cam, I'd now failed Connor. Could I do nothing right? Was I destined to always fail the people around me? Maybe Taylor was right. Maybe everything really was my fault.

'Pokéball, go!'

I barely heard the trainer's voice. I hardly felt the small metal ball hit my back. But then my vision blurred, and my body felt light, distant . . . and then I couldn't even feel it at all, and it was as if all that existed was my mind. My vision turned red, and faded away into nothing just as I realised what was happening.

You can't capture me! I'm not a pokémon, I'm a human just like you! I'm not like the rest of them! You can't capture me, you can't! That's just . . . that's just impossible!

It wasn't. I heard the click of the pokéball snapping shut, with me inside.

It was dark, but it was warm and cozy . . . despite how much my subconscious was telling me to get out of there, I couldn't help but feel comfortable. It was so relaxing in there, so nice and peaceful . . . so free of restriction. I couldn't feel my body anymore, and was much as that startled me, it felt nice. I wasn't comfortable with my body, and the way it kept defying my expectations, transforming into something different. My mind was something that was constant. Something I could trust, something I could rely on. And if I could exist just as my mind, without my body, then all the better.

'Yes! I caught one!'

The voice was muffled, and I couldn't tell where it had come from. My instincts wanted to look around for its owner, but then I realised that I couldn't. I wasn't in a physical place anymore. There was no head for me to turn, no place for me to look. There was only this strange, calming half-existence.

'_Kit!! Give her back! Let her go!_'

The distant voice sounded both familiar and strange. It was high-pitched and slurred . . . but I didn't know anyone with a voice like that, did I? I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure whose voices I knew, or if I even knew any. Voices didn't seem to matter anymore. Things I knew didn't seem to exist anymore.

But that was all right. I didn't need to know anything. This place was too peaceful for me to be worrying about facts or memories. No, I'd rather forget everything, be free of the burden of knowledge, and just exist here where everything's comfortable.


	22. Chapter 21: Memories

Well, I just looked at the preview for this chapter, and I realised that it doesn't display my double line spaces properly. So when the scene changes and I'd normally have a bigger gap between the lines to indicate this, it doesn't show up. -- I'm not sure if it's done the same thing in previous chapters; I'll have to check that out. Until I figure out a way to do this properly, I just put in horizontal lines between the scenes. I know it looks stupid, but I figured it'd be better to get the chapter out sooner than to have it look nice. I'll try to fix this up by the release of the next chapter.  
****

******Chapter Twenty-One - Memories**

'Come out, Vulpix.'

Something jerked me into consciousness, and there was a flash of bright light. I blinked and took a look around me. I was in a building of some sort. Around me were a few benches, on which some humans sat, some of them holding pokémon or pokéballs. Covering the walls were large, brightly-coloured images, but they seemed foreign to me. Something didn't feel right.

'Hey Vulpix.' Human hands gripped me from either side and lifted me into the air, and I found myself looking down at a human boy. Dark blonde hair, blue eyes, a round face. I had no idea who this person was. 'I'm your new trainer. My name's Katashi. I've been looking for a good fire pokémon for a while now, and I think you'll do great for my team. You're gonna help me win the Rainbow Tournament, aren't ya?' He gave me a smile, and I just stared at him. Trainer? Team? Tournament? What was he talking about?

'Hmph! That vulpix is nowhere near as good as mine! I choose you, Vulpix!'

I tried to look past Katashi's body to see who had spoken, but the way he was holding me restricted my movement.

'Look at that. You're never gonna see a vulpix with colour like that again! Such a great catch!'

'Whatever, William. Albinos may be rare, but they're weak. My vulpix is gonna be much better than yours.'

'Heh, we'll see.'

'We sure will.' Katashi bent over to place me back on the ground. 'Vulpix, return.' My vision turned red, and I sunk into subconsciousness.

* * *

'OK Vulpix, your turn.'

My body materialised, and I glanced around. I was standing in a small open field, and I spotted a bellsprout facing me a few metres away, with a human boy standing behind her. I turned around to see Katashi looking down at me.

'OK Vulpix, I know this is your first battle, but try your best. Let's see what you can do. Try an Ember attack.'

I blinked at him. Ember attack? What on earth was he talking about?

'Heh, looks like your vulpix doesn't know any attacks either.'

'Then we're going to have to teach them. Let's call off the battle for now and try to teach them some moves ourselves.'

'All right, all right. But I totally would've won that!'

'Whatever, William. Let's go.'

'Bellsprout, return! Go Vulpix!'

William dropped a small sphere to the ground, and in a flash of light a creature appeared. I recognised him instantly as a vulpix, just like myself, but of very different colouring. The fur that covered his whole body was a pure white, while his eyes were a pinkish shade. I blinked, and I was sure I recognised this white vulpix from somewhere.

'C'mon Vulpix,' William looked down at the white vulpix. 'We're gonna try teaching you some attacks!'

The white vulpix didn't seem to hear, instead turning his attention to me.

'_Kit!_' he exclaimed, and rushed over to me. '_Kit, they . . . they got you as well?_'

'_Got me?_' I asked. '_What are you talking about?_'

'_Those humans. Don't you know what's happened? They've captured us!_'

I paused, then looked up at Katashi. Captured? But I couldn't remember being locked in a cage or a room. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember how I got here at all.

'Come on you two, you can have a chance to talk later. You've got training to do. We're going to try teaching you to use an attack called Ember. You understand that? Ember.'

'_What is it saying, Kit?_' The white vulpix asked. '_I can't understand human speech, but you can, can't you?_'

I turned back to the vulpix. Why could I understand those humans if he couldn't? We were both pokémon, and everyone knew that pokémon and humans couldn't understand each other. But I was sure that I understood every word of what those humans said. Surely I couldn't just have been imagining that.

'Hey Katashi, just how _do_ you teach a pokémon to use Ember anyway?'

'We'll start with some berries.' Katashi walked over to where his backpack was resting against a tree. He unzipped a pocket on the side. 'You got any cheris or figies?'

'Yeah, but how're they gonna help?'

'Isn't it obvious?' Katashi stood up, tossing some berries up and down in his left hand. 'To use fire-type attacks they've gotta build up the heat in their bodies. What better way to do that than with spicy berries?' He came over to me and knelt down beside me, holding his hand out. 'Here you go Vulpix. How do you like these?'

The berries' fragrance drifted to my nostrils, and I found myself stepping closer to Katashi's outstretched hand. He was holding two types of small fruit; a tiny spherical red berry and a larger, cone-shaped white berry with splashes of red. Both of them looked so tasty, and I felt my stomach rumble just at the sight of them. I glanced up at Katashi, then reached out and took one of the small red berries in my teeth.

'_Kit, what are you doing? Are you sure you can trust this human?_'

I ignored the white vulpix and bit into the berry. As I squished it between my teeth, my mouth began to burn, but it was a comforting feeling, a delicious feeling. I swallowed the berry and reached back to Katashi's hand, taking one of the larger fruits.

'Hey, it seems to really like them. Eat up, Vulpix. We need to get your mouth on fire.'

I chewed up the fruit eagerly, gulping it down quickly. I then ate two more of the smaller red berries, and by the time I was done with them, my whole head felt hot with their spicy taste. I took a deep breath of cooler air, and when I puffed it back out, I felt tiny sparks of fire spit out with it.

'Woah! You mean that actually works? You're smart, Katashi!'

'It's not as simple as that, there's still work to be done.' Katashi got up and returned to his backpack. He unzipped the main section and took out a small thin spray can, then came back to me.

'Uh, Katashi, what exactly are you gonna do with a can of deodorant?'

'Watch and learn, William.' Katashi looked down at me. 'Vulpix, when I spray this can, I want you to breathe onto it, you understand?'

I didn't see any sense to that, but I felt grateful to Katashi for giving me such tasty berries, and I wanted to repay him somehow. So I nodded.

'Woah, you see that? It nodded its head! You reckon it really understood you?'

'It's possible. Pokémon are quick learners. They can understand quite a lot of human speech.'

'But this one was wild, and you know how rare vulpixes are around here, they hardly ever come into contact with humans!'

'Then I guess I got one just as rare as your albino. The only thing is, William, that intelligence is much more valuable than an unusual colour.'

'Hmph. Just you wait and see, Katashi! I'll show you how strong my white vulpix is gonna get!'

'Whatever, William. Now Vulpix, are you ready?'

I nodded, and Katashi pushed his finger down on the top of the spray can. A scented waft of air shot out of the can's small opening, and I opened my mouth wide, breathing onto it.

Suddenly the spray erupted into flames, shooting out a stream of fire. I gasped and stepped back, while Katashi pulled his finger off the spray can's lid. The fire disappeared, and I was left staring ahead into the empty air. Had I really caused that fire to ignite? Had those flames really come from my breath?

'Woah! That was amazing, Katashi! That wasn't even an Ember, that was totally a Flamethrower!'

'No it wasn't. That was just a reaction with the gas from the can. Didn't you ever do that with the Bunsen burners at school? Vulpix's fire set off those flames, but the whole thing didn't come from its mouth. It'll be some time before it masters Flamethrower. We're going to concentrate on Ember first.' Katashi ran his hand down between my ears, rubbing the curls on my head. 'Great work, Vulpix. Now let's see what you can do without the help of the can. Just try to see if you can spit out some flames. If you do it well enough, I'll give you some more berries.'

More of those delicious berries? I can't wait! I closed my eyes for a moment, forcing myself to concentrate. Try to centre that heat in your mouth and form it into something solid. Gather the fire that exists in your heart and turn it physical.

I took in a deep breath through my nose, then opened my jaws and pushed out the burning heat from my mouth. A few wisps of fire appeared, and I broke into a smile. I'm doing this, I'm really doing this! I'm learning to breathe fire!

* * *

It was about an hour later that my training finished. Katashi gave me a few more berries, and then told me I should have a rest in my pokéball, whatever that meant. I wasn't sure what happened then, but I soon found myself in that other place . . . no, not a place at all, that other non-place, where only my mind existed, floating in a calming, peaceful world without any bodily restrictions. I liked it there, it was so nice to just drift away into nothing and not have to worry about anything.

While in this non-place, I lost track of all the elements of the real world, one of which was time. So I didn't know how long I'd been there when I emerged again into the physical realm. This time I found myself in a new place. The ground was a mixture of grass and dirt, and surrounding me were large cloth structures, which some part of me knew were called tents. Moving around these tents were several humans, which made me feel a little worried, but also curious. There was something about humans that I liked, something I related to, something I felt that I was part of.

'Vulpix, it's dinner time. Come and have some of this great pokémon food, and meet the rest of our pokémon.'

At the sound of Katashi's voice, I looked up to see the boy standing over me. He smiled at me softly, then gestured to where five other pokémon were sitting around bowls of food. One was the white vulpix I'd seen earlier, another was the bellsprout who'd been there too, two others were a trapinch and a croconaw who I was sure I recognised from somewhere, and the final one was a manectric I hadn't seen before. Four of them were eating from the bowls, but the white vulpix sat staring at me, his eyes wide, his body shaking slightly.

'_Kit, what are we going to do?_' he asked. '_I don't know where we are. How are we ever going to get back to the pack?_'

'_You ain't getting back to the pack,_' the croconaw said in between mouthfuls of food. '_You're with Katashi and William now. You're part of the team._'

'_Yes_,' the manectric raised his head to look at us. '_I'm sorry we didn't give you a proper welcome. I'm sure you'll enjoy being one of us. Katashi and William are great trainers, the best you'll find. Hopefully with your help we'll be able to win this tournament that's coming up._'

'_Tournament?_' I asked. '_What's that?_'

'_It's a series of battles between trainers,_' the manectric explained. '_If you lose a battle, you get knocked out of the tournament. Whoever wins all their battles is the overall winner, and they usually get a pretty big prize._'

'_What's the prize at this tournament?_' the trapinch asked. '_I forgot._'

'_I don't remember the exact name, I think it was something like a coloured feather?_' the manectric shrugged. '_I don't see what's so exciting about a coloured feather, it's probably some human item that we pokémon can't understand. I'm sure it's very valuable, or they wouldn't be holding a tournament with it as the grand prize._'

'_I'm sorry,_' the white vulpix said. '_But Kit and I can't help you win this tournament. We have our own responsibilities, and we really must get back to our homes. My pack needs me, and Kit's family must be missing her._'

My family? I paused for a moment to think about who that was, and I saw an image of two ninetales smiling down at me. Mum, Dad . . . I miss you.

'_Family?_' the croconaw asked. '_Forget about that. This is your family now! You're part of the team._'

'_But we can't be part of this team,_' the white vulpix shook his head. '_You don't understand. Kit is . . . Kit isn't even an ordinary vulpix. She's actually . . . well I know this sounds strange, but she's actually a human._'

There was a pause, and then the four trained pokémon laughed.

'_Wow, when the colour was drained from this vulpix his brains were obviously drained too!_' the bellsprout giggled. '_A vulpix that's really a human! How stupid!_'

'_But it's true!_' the white vulpix exclaimed. He turned to me. '_Tell them, Kit._'

'_Human? Me?_' I tilted my head, staring at him to try to make out from his expression whether he was actually serious. '_What on earth are you talking about, prince?_'

Prince? I hadn't even thought the word before it had stumbled off my tongue. Yes, that's right, this white vulpix was my prince, prince Connor, of the pack I belonged to. I hadn't seen him very much because he'd been very sick, but the whole pack knew that the white vulpix was the prince. That was why he had been chosen as our leader; because of his special colour.

'_What do you mean, Kit!?_' Connor exclaimed. '_But Taggy said that he saw you . . . you . . . you weren't lying to me, were you?_'

'_Lying to you?_' I asked. '_I never said anything about being a human. That's just stupid. It's not like I'm Soulfire or anything._'

Soulfire? Another name I thought I'd forgotten. Yes, Soulfire was the heroine in the legend that our pack had passed down for generations. The vulpix who had become human, who had been the mother of the entire human race. But that had happened thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago. And it had only ever happened once. Sometimes we joked about it, acting out the story and pretending to turn into humans like Soulfire and Spiritfox had. But deep down we knew that becoming a human was impossible. Humans had become separate from pokémon. They didn't need any more pokémon to become humans, because they now existed on their own.

'_Kit, I . . . I'm feeling very confused. When we told you the legend of Spiritfox and Soulfire, you didn't even want to hear it. Now you're talking about it as if you . . . as if you actually believe in it._'

I blinked at him. '_Why shouldn't I believe in it? You don't mean it's made-up, do you?_'

'_No, of course not,_' Connor shook his head. '_I'm just shocked to hear you reacting like this. Kit, something doesn't seem right here. Don't you remember being human? I'm sure Taggy wouldn't have lied to me, I'm sure of it. Maybe something's happened, maybe you've lost your memory. Don't you remember how you and Taylor were humans?_'

'_Taylor?_' I wondered aloud. Taylor, I knew that name. Yes, he was my friend who I'd grown up with. He'd evolved into a ninetales at a young age, so Mum and Dad had always trusted that he'd be strong enough to take care of me, and we'd always played together. But there was something else about that name. Something more to it. It was as if Taylor wasn't just my childhood friend, it was as if he was someone else as well . . ..

'_You don't remember, Kit?_'

'_I remember Taylor, sure. I don't remember anything about him being human, though. You sure you're not just playing with my head here?_'

'_You mean you remember him as a ninetales but not as a human?_'

'_Well yeah. Why would I remember him as a human? He's a ninetales. You're talking crazy, prince, if it's not too much for me to say so._'

'_But Kit, surely you remember saving Taggy from that human, and then you and Taylor become pokémon, and you came and helped me, and then you and your friends Elsie and Cam came with us to . . ._'

He continued talking, but I couldn't hear him anymore. Cam? My body felt cold, and my heart was pounding. That name meant something to me. Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I knew that name. But I didn't know who it belonged to. I had no idea. I strained my mind, but I couldn't put a face to the name, couldn't remember anything about who he was, could only remember that I _should _have known.

Cam. Who on earth was he? I knew I should have known, I knew that somewhere inside of me, there was a part of me that still knew. But I couldn't find it. I had no idea where to look, and I had no idea who that name belonged to.

'_Who's Cam?_' I asked slowly.

Connor blinked. '_You . . . you don't know?_' I shook my head. '_He's your kecleon friend._'

Kecleon friend? I knew what a kecleon was, sure, but to call one my friend? I was only friends with other vulpixes and ninetales, with the other members of my pack. I was no friend of a kecleon. This prince was crazy. First calling me a human, then accusing me of being friends with some reptile . . ..

'_Kit, something's happened to you, I think you've lost your memory . . . tell me, please, what's the last thing you remember before we were here with those humans?_'

The last thing I remember? I strained my mind for answers. I remembered early childhood, playing with Taylor and the other vulpixes and ninetales, always wanting to go out exploring, but our parents never letting us. Then one day we finally were allowed out on our own, so Taylor and I had ventured out into the bushland.

What had happened then? My memory was blurry. I remembered the bush being dark all of a sudden, and had it started to rain? I wasn't sure. Then I'd seen something in the sky. Fire? No, but something similar. A pokémon? Maybe. And then something else had happened, and I'd seen something on the ground, and I reached out to pick it up.

But weren't these memories of something else? Hadn't this happened somewhere else, at a different time, in a different world? These weren't the memories of the day Taylor and I had left home . . . were they?

I thought I heard the cry of a bird, then realised it was only in my mind, in my memory. I fought with my mind for a clearer vision of bird, and found myself back at the scene in the dark bush, looking up the sky, and there was the bird. She turned to look at me, nodded, and something fell from her wings.

Fire Stone. Sacred Ash. Ho-Oh. The Genesis Bushland. Spectrum City. High School. Amanda. Home. Parents. Katherine Tanguy.

The words came flooding back into my mind, and suddenly I knew who I was. I was Katherine Tanguy, Kit for short. I was a fourteen-year-old human girl, who had lived an ordinary life in Spectrum City. Russell Taylor was the guy whose grandmother lived in the apartment next to mine. He was an annoying brat.

But that wasn't the whole story.

No, that was only half.

I was also Kit the vulpix, who had lived an ordinary life with her pack in an underground den in the middle of the bush. Taylor was a ninetales who was also a member of the pack. He was my best friend.

My head was spinning. I had remembered who I was. But I'd remembered two different stories, two conflicting arguments, two sides that didn't match up. And not one seemed more real than the other. Which one was the truth? Were neither of them the truth?

Or were they both the truth?


	23. Chapter 22: Pay Day

Sorry about the long wait for this one. I've just moved, so I've been pretty busy, and I was also without the internet for two weeks. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing the story. I know the long waits are annoying, but the story will keep going, and it still has a long way to go yet!

**Chapter Twenty-Two - Pay Day**

'_I remember now . . ._' I breathed, looking over at Connor. '_I remember. I _am_ a human. But I . . . Connor, remember how you told me about that vulpix and ninetales who disappeared from your pack?_'

'_The other Kit and Taylor,_' nodded Connor. '_Yes, of course._'

Other? I wasn't sure that word applied anymore. I swallowed. It was crazy, it was impossible, but I remembered the life of that vulpix, I remembered how she had lived in the underground vulpix pack, I remembered her parents, her friends, and I remembered all these things so clearly that they felt like they were my own life. No, it was stronger than just a feeling. I _knew_ that they were my own life.

But surely that wasn't possible. How could I have been a vulpix, when I also knew that I was a human? I remembered the day I had first become a vulpix. It had only been a few months ago. But I'd only met Connor and been introduced to the vulpix pack right before we'd been captured. None of those memories of being a vulpix could have happened recently, because there was too much to fit into that small a timeframe. But they couldn't have happened a long time ago either, because I hadn't been a vulpix then. So where did they fit in? Had I just imagined them? No, I knew I hadn't. They were just as clear as my memories of being a human.

'_Kit?_' Connor asked slowly. '_Is there something you wanted to know about those two members of the pack?_'

I looked over at him, then shook my head. I didn't want to know something about them, because I already knew everything about them. Everything, except for how on earth I was one of them.

For some reason, I didn't want to tell Connor that I remembered being a part of his pack. I wanted to wait until we got back, until we saw the rest of the pack again, because maybe then I'd remember something more, things would become clearer to me, and I'd be able to explain it to Connor without having to admit that I really had no idea what was going on in my head.

'_We've got to get back,_' I said. '_We can't stay here as captives._'

'_I know,_' nodded Connor. '_But there's no way we can explain that to the humans as we are now. You've got to change back into a human so that you can talk to them, and we can try to negotiate something._'

Why hadn't I thought of that? This was going to be simple. All I had to do was change back into a human. There was no way these guys could keep me captive if I were a human. And I was sure I could get Connor out of here somehow as well.

I hesitated. But how could I turn back into a human? All of the other times it had happened, it had been because I'd run out of energy. But now I felt quite fit. And I didn't want to drain my energy just to turn back into a human. I closed my eyes. Come on Kit, you can do this. Just use your willpower. If Taylor can change between human and pokémon at will, so can you.

But I had no idea how. I didn't know where to begin. What would I tell my body to make it change into a human?

'_Kit!_'

I was startled out of my thoughts by someone calling my name. I turned, and saw a cream-coloured pokémon of around my size approaching me. I blinked. I knew that meowth!

'_Tom!_' I exclaimed. '_But how . . ._'

'_I haven't seen you in a while, Kit. Not since the time you borrowed some medicine for yer friend, and then that human girl Katherine said she was you. Strange girl, that one._'

'_What are you doing here?_' I asked, ignoring his comment about me being strange; I didn't have time to argue, or to explain that I really _was_ that human girl. Katashi could put me back in that pokéball any moment now. I had to make the most of this.

Tom tilted his head. '_What d'ya mean, what am I doin' here? I knew you were clumsy, not dumb. I live here, remember?_'

I blinked. He lived here? But I'd met Tom when I'd been on camp in the Aruto National Park. Then that must mean . . .

'_We're in the National Park?_' I asked.

'_Course you are, where'd you think you were?_'

'_I had no idea. Tom, you've gotta help us out. Me and Connor_' - I gestured to the prince - '_have been caught by humans. You've gotta help us escape._'

Tom blinked. '_Escape? Now why would ya wanta do that? Being with humans is a good thing. You two should be happy._'

'_No, Tom! It's not like you living with the park rangers! These guys are trainers! They . . . listen, remember when you helped me save my friend Cam from Team Magma?_'

'_You? What're ya talkin' 'bout? I remember saving that kecleon, but you weren't involved in that, it was just me, Katherine and my murkrow friends._'

I sighed. '_That's what I meant. Sorry. The point is, the guys who caught us are just like those guys who caught Cam! You've gotta help us escape!_'

I knew it wasn't really the truth. Katashi and William weren't like Adrian and Rose. Team Magma used pokémon for crime, these guys were just trainers. But they were still holding us here against our will, they were still restraining us to those pokéballs . . . was it really that different? I'd never seen pokémon trainers in a negative light before. I'd always thought of them as helping pokémon to harness their powers and become strong. But what if the pokémon didn't want to become strong? And I was sure pokéballs weren't just to make travelling with pokémon easier. I was sure they brainwashed pokémon somehow. As soon as I'd been caught, I'd forgotten who I really was, and that had made me listen to Katashi, do what he wanted. Where was the honour in doing that to a wild pokémon? No wonder wild pokémon were so scared of trainers. They didn't just take away your freedom, they took away your will, your mind, your sense of who you were. Tom was wrong. Being with humans was nothing to be happy about.

'_That can't be right,_' said Tom. '_I overheard my humans sayin' this is a camp for people interested in protecting wild pokémon. They're goin' ta teach 'em 'bout how the National Park protects wild pokémon. You should be glad that yer humans are interested in that kind of thing._'

'_If Katashi and William are so interested in protecting wild pokémon, why did they catch us?_' I muttered.

'_Don't think of it as being caught. Now you're under the protection of humans, think of it that way. Havin' humans around might seem a bit strange at first, but it's actually for the best. That's why my humans bring rare pokémon from unprotected areas to the National Park. Here they're protected, so they won't be in danger anymore._'

Bringing rare pokémon from other areas? I'd almost forgotten that I'd never found out why humans had brought Cam to the National Park. Was it really because they were trying to protect him? Kecleons were a native endangered species, and I knew there were some schemes around to try to conserve them. But was bringing them here really a solution? Cam had been thrown into an unfamiliar place, scared and alone. What was protection if it was filled with insecurity?

'_Tom, I understand that humans think they're doing the right thing, but you're a pokémon, can't you see our side of the story? They've taken us away from our homes. Connor's the prince of the vulpix pack in the Genesis Bushland, he can't just abandon all those vulpixes and ninetales to be with these humans. And me . . . I've got my own friends and family who're gonna be worried about me._'

I didn't even know how long I'd been in that pokéball, but I knew my human parents would be freaking out by now. They'd gone crazy enough the time I'd come home a few hours late after I'd first become a vulpix. Who knows how long I'd been gone this time. Days? Weeks?

Then there were Violette and Robi (despite what I was sure I'd remembered about being their daughter, I wasn't quite ready to call them "Mum" and "Dad"). They'd been searching for me for years, then when I'd finally reappeared, I'd been taken away again.

'_I'm sorry to interrupt, but Kit's right,_' said Connor, stepping forward. '_We need to get back. I can see that you're comfortable with your humans, so can you imagine if someone took you away from them? That's just like what happened to us._'

Tom paused, then nodded. '_I see. I love it there, so I wish every pokémon could be with humans like mine, but ta be taken away from your friends . . . fine. I'll help you escape. But it won't be easy. Your humans can put you back in those balls in an instant. They'll need ta be distracted. I'll see what I can do ta distract 'em, and you guys try ta get away._'

I smiled. '_Thanks Tom._'

'_No problem, anything ta help a fellow pokémon,_' Tom said, before strolling over to Katashi and William.

'Hey, check it out, a wild meowth!' William bent down to Tom.

'Don't be so thick, William. It's the park rangers' meowth. Look at the bell around its neck and besides, didn't you see it wander down from the cabin? It's been talking to Vulpix for a few minutes.'

'Well sorr-ee Mr Smart Guy. I just thought that- hey, what's it doing?'

The two trainers peered closer to Tom as the meowth ran his paw over his forehead, as if scratching. But each time he brushed his paw over the gold charm between his ears, a coin dropped to the ground.

'It's making money appear!'

'It's a move called Pay Day, William. Any meowth can learn it.'

'But it's making _money_ appear! Check it out! Imagine if we had a meowth, we'd be rich!'

'If you were a better trainer we'd be rich.'

'Hey, don't be nasty, Katashi. Tell ya what, why don't we grab these coins? It's not really stealing, right? It's doing it right in front of us, it's practically _giving_ them to us!'

'I suppose . . ..'

'C'mon, let's grab 'em!' William started scooping up the coins, and then Tom began to head away. 'Wait up, Meowth!' He rushed after the feline pokémon.

'_Okay, let's go!_' I whispered. Connor nodded, and we began to run in the opposite direction.

'_Wait up you two, where are you off to?_' I heard Manectric call after us.

'_Ignore him, let's get out of here!_' I hissed, and we kept running.

'_Katashi! Vulpix is running away! Katashi!_' Croconaw shouted.

'What's wrong, Croconaw- hey! Vulpix! Where are you going? William, ignore the stupid meowth! The vulpixes are running away!'

'What!? Hey, come back here, Vulpix! Vulpix, return!'

'Vulpix, return!'

Beams of red light shot down around our feet, but we narrowly managed to dodge them. Just run into the bushes, Kit. Then you can find somewhere to hide.

'Croconaw, Water Gun!'

No. Anything but that! Memories of the last time I'd been hit by that attack came rushing back, and I was so caught up in the horror that I stumbled over. As I fell to the ground, I heard the torrent of water fly straight over my head, and then there was a yelp and a thump. I looked up to see Connor lying on the ground weakly, drenched in water.

My heartbeat racing, I rushed over to him. That attack had been for me. And although I'd escaped it, it had instead hit Connor, my ally, my prince. The albino was already weak. Being hit by a super-effective attack was sure to cause serious damage. Why hadn't I let it hit me instead? There was no way Connor could escape now.

'_Kit . . ._' Connor's voice croaked. '_I can't go on. Please, you escape. Get back to your family. Get away while you can._'

'_B . . . but . . ._' I stammered.

'_There's no point in both of us getting caught . . . please . . . just . . ._'

'Vulpix, return!'

Connor was hit with a beam of red light, and then his body dematerialised. I turned and ran. One part of me was calling myself a coward, telling me to get back there and protect my prince. But another part was telling me that Connor was right, that I had to get away while I had the chance. I could save Connor later, but only if I saved myself now.

I made it into the bushes, and dodged my way past the trees and rocks. I could hear Katashi following me, calling out to me, but he was becoming more and more distant. I might not have been a fast runner, but my small size made it easier for me to navigate the wild bushland. Soon, I couldn't even hear Katashi's voice, but I kept running to make sure I was far enough away. After a few minutes I couldn't take any more and collapsed against a rock, puffing.

After catching my breath, I took a look around me. It was only then that I realised how hopeless the situation was. I'd gotten away from Katashi, but now what? As a vulpix, I had no way of getting home. I couldn't get on a bus without being caught again. There was no way for me to get back home as a pokémon. I had to change back into a human.

So I was back at my initial problem. How could I will my body to change back? I was sure that if Taylor could do it, so could I. I just had no idea how.

I got to my feet. Sitting around wasn't going to get me anywhere. The other times I'd changed back into a human, it had happened when I'd run out of energy. Maybe if I did something to exhaust myself, I'd change back again? But I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to get into a battle with a wild pokémon for no reason. And if I passed out, who knew what could happen. Katashi could find me and take me back, or even worse, another trainer could catch me. I had to stay alert. I had responsibility, both to myself and to Connor. I had to find some way of getting out of here, and then I could get help and come back for Connor.

Although I couldn't hear Katashi anymore, he would still be looking for me. Perhaps the best thing to do first would be to find a better place to hide. The best hiding place would be in my human body, of course, but if I couldn't get myself to change back, I had to do what best I could as a vulpix.

I began to wander through the bush. There had to be a cave I could hide out in, or maybe if I could find one of Tom's murkrow friends I could ask them for advice . . . but wait, weren't murkrows nocturnal? They'd all be asleep now, and if I woke them up they probably wouldn't be in too cheerful a mood. So what about all those bugs who'd helped us out too? Surely one of them would remember me. It couldn't be too often that you helped a girl rescue a kecleon from Team Magma. So if I could just- hang on. "A girl". A _human_ girl. When Tom and his friends had helped me rescue Cam, I'd been a human. How could they remember me when I wasn't even the same species anymore?

I sighed heavily. Great. So now what? This stupid power of mine was becoming more and more of a burden all the time. When I'd been young I'd always thought that it would be cool to be able to become a pokémon, but so much for that. All this ability had done was get me mixed up in all sorts of trouble. I used to be just a normal girl, but now I had a criminal organisation chasing after me, some pokémon trainers trying to catch me because they thought they owned me, and to add to it all, I wasn't even sure who I really was anymore. Everything would have been so much better if I'd just never become a vulpix. Then I wouldn't be in this mess, wouldn't have to constantly be on the lookout for--

I suddenly became aware of human voices, and stopped in my tracks. Had Katashi caught up with me? I listened harder. No, these voices were calm, and there was no movement accompanying them, as if they were just standing still talking. Although I couldn't make out their words, there was something familiar about them.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I headed in the direction the voices were coming from. They brought me to a small cave. Finally, I'd found refuge, but if humans were in the cave, wouldn't I be in even more trouble than I would be out in the open? I crept my head slowly around the cave entrance.

' . . . as you can see, they've depicted their gods as creatures with long necks and wings, but you can still see from these icons that they're supposed to be the sun and the moon.'

I blinked. I'd heard this before. Oh no, don't tell me I've run into that camp instructor who told the stupid legend about the sun and the moon! I looked up and sure enough, a man who I recognised as that very instructor was standing at the wall of the cave, gesturing to markings on the rocks. A group of other humans was eagerly looking up at the paintings and listening intently. Jeez, talk about boring. I'd had enough of that stupid legend, and those paintings weren't even clear anyway. I looked over at them, and all I saw were some faint lines that barely resembled any kind of shape. Sure, the little sun and moon icons were apparent, but anything more than that . . . well, okay, it did sort of look like they had long necks, and maybe those other things were wings . . . and I guess "Moon" had something that looked a bit like a long tail, while "Sun" had some kind of crest on its head . . . almost like a crown.

I'd seen a crown like that before . . . on a creature that looked something like that . . . the long neck, the wings, and the regal feathers on its head . . . yes, it had been on the day I'd seen Ho-Oh . . . Ho-Oh and Lugia . . . when they'd battled in the sky, just like Sun and Moon had battled . . ..

I narrowed my eyes. Taylor had said that Sun and Moon were really Ho-Oh and Lugia, but the legend couldn't really be true, could it? The day I'd seen the legendary birds battling, that hadn't really been the feared day of Moon's triumph over Sun, right? It couldn't be. No, because Lugia hadn't really triumphed, had he? Ho-Oh had been defeated, but she'd left something behind, something that I'd picked up, something that had changed my life drastically. Had Ho-Oh left that ash for me on purpose, given me this ability for a reason? I'd been thinking that my power had caused me nothing but trouble . . . but surely Ho-Oh wouldn't leave me with something that only brought trouble. Surely there was a purpose for this power, a duty I had to fulfil.

And Ho-Oh wasn't really gone, was she? I'd seen her burn up into a ball of flames and disappear, and I'd felt guilty that I'd watched her be destroyed without doing anything to help. But she couldn't really be destroyed, not completely . . . even if her body had burnt up, her spirit had to still exist somewhere . . . it had to, because I'd contacted it before. When I'd been on school camp, in this very park, I'd felt myself about to change into a vulpix, but in order to stop it from happening in front of my classmates, I'd begged Ho-Oh to keep me in my human form, and it had worked.

That's it! It was Ho-Oh who gave me this power, so surely it was Ho-Oh who controlled it. If she'd been able to _stop_ me from changing, wouldn't she just as easily be able to _make_ me change?

I closed my eyes. Ho-Oh, mighty Ho-Oh, please lend me your power . . . change me back into a human so that I can save myself and my prince. Please, just let me be a human again.

I sighed. Nothing was happening. I couldn't feel my body changing at all. So, not even Ho-Oh could help me? I opened my eyes, shaking my head.

Then I blinked. The ground suddenly seemed a lot farther away. I took a step back, and realised I was only using two feet. I quickly brought my hands up in front of my eyes. They were there! I had my hands back! That meant . . . I looked over my body, and sure enough, I was human. I hadn't even felt the transition, but it had worked. Asking Ho-Oh to change me had really worked. This was incredible! Not only did this mean I could control my transformations, but it had confirmed that Ho-Oh was still alive. She was out there, somewhere, and even if it was only her spirit, she was on our side, and was willing to lend us her power.

I grinned. I couldn't wait to see Taylor's face when I showed him that I could control my transformations too. That'd be sure to wipe that cocky grin off his face. I'd show him that he wasn't the big hero around here. But first, I had to save Connor and get out of this park.


	24. Chapter 23: Affirmation and Preparation

Guess what? Yes, I finally updated. I've been playing too much LeafGreen lately. Interestingly enough, in Silph Co. there are scientists called Taylor and Connor. Conspiracy? Perhaps! Though it's not quite as freaky as back when Gold/Silver were released and I discovered Bug Catcher Josh in Azalea Gym (for those of you who don't know, in my other fanfic, Team Yellow's Pokélog, there's a recurring bug catcher character called Josh).

But guess what else? I was looking into this new "C2" thing, and decided it would be cool to start a C2 for Vulpix and Ninetales. What do you guys think? Wouldn't it be cool to put together a list of all the stories here that star Vulpix and/or Ninetales? I think it would be great for the fox pokémon fan community to have something like this. But we can't do it without banding together, so I need you guys to help. If you've written or read a story featuring Vulpix and/or Ninetales, please tell me about it so I can add it to the list! It doesn't have to have the Vulpix or Ninetales as the main character, but they do have to have a reasonably big part in the story (so not something where a trainer happens to battle a vulpix in one battle in one chapter of a long story, or anything like that). You can tell me about the story either by emailing me or mentioning it in a review. The link to the C2 should be in the C2 section of my profile page (I can't put it here since tends to delete links if you put them in the actual story). Thanks to everyone for reading the story, an extra big thanks to everyone who's reviewed, and an advanced thanks to anyone who helps me with suggestions for the Vulpix and Ninetales C2! But for now, on with the next chapter.  
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**Chapter Twenty-Three – Affirmation and Preparation**

'Hello? Are you part of the tour? If so, you're late.'

I looked over and realised that the camp instructor had spotted me. It was no wonder; my human form wasn't as easy to hide as my vulpix form was.

'No, actually I'm just on my way home,' I said. 'Do you know what time the next bus to Spectrum City is?'

'What do you mean, you're on your way home? You shouldn't be here unless you're part of a tour group.'

'Oh, I'm not part of a group, I just came on my own.'

'Then you're either lying or you've snuck in. At the moment, the park is only allowing official tour groups through. No individual visitors.'

I hesitated. Great, now what? I should have thought a bit about my story, not just said the first thing that came into my head. Now I was stuck. If I changed my story halfway through he'd know I was lying and besides, I couldn't actually think of another excuse.

'Hang on, haven't I seen you somewhere before?' The instructor leaned towards me. 'Weren't you on that school camp not long ago?'

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'I thought all these legends and stuff were really cool, so I came back for another look.'

'Oh, is that right? Well, I'm afraid that no matter what your reason, you can't be here without being part of a group. You're gonna have to come with me to the rangers' cabin and call your parents.'

My parents? Oh great, that was _just_ what I needed. They'd already be freaking out enough by the fact that I hadn't come home, but if they found out I was here, in the National Park, the place I'd gotten into trouble with Team Magma last time, I'd never hear the end of it.

'Come on, you're coming with me.' The instructor grabbed my wrist, then turned back to the group. 'Sorry everyone, we're gonna have to head back to base. We can't have children running around the park unsupervised.'

'Children!?' I exclaimed. 'I'm fourteen, thank you very much. I don't–'

'Exactly. Children.'

I narrowed my eyes. 'Don't patronise me.'

'Patronising has nothing to do with it, the park rules say that no one under sixteen can be here without an adult. Now come with me, we're calling your parents.'

'Whatever,' I muttered, and yanked my wrist free of his hold. 'But I can follow you myself, you don't need to drag me around like a prisoner.'

'Fine, but if you even try to run off, you're in big trouble. Breaking the park rules can result in big fines, you know. I'm willing to let you off if you behave yourself.'

'Yeah yeah,' I rolled my eyes, knowing it was best not to argue with him despite how tempting it was. So I let him lead me back through the bush, and as the tour group followed I could feel their glares, all of them angry with me for interrupting their little lesson on the ancient legends of Aruto.

We must have been walking for less than a minute when I heard voices calling out.

'Vulpix! Vulpix, where are you?'

I had to smile. Good luck finding your vulpix, Katashi.

'I'm telling you, if you don't find that pokémon you're in big trouble!' Another voice was saying. 'This park is for native species only! Vulpixes are pests! They're a hazard to native wildlife!'

Pests, are we? I narrowed my eyes. Whoever that was, he obviously had no idea what vulpixes were really like. He only had to meet Connor to see how kind-hearted we were. If we vulpixes were a hazard to native wildlife, would our prince have let a kecleon into his den as a friend and an ally? Hardly. So why pick on us just because we're not native to Aruto? Vulpixes were introduced decades ago. Most, if not all, of the vulpixes in the pack in the Genesis Bushland would have been born there. Didn't that make them native? How were we any different to the nosepasses, the tangelas, the natus? Why were they allowed to be protected in this park while we weren't? We hadn't chosen to be who we were, so why exclude us, why call us pests and try to shelter the native species from us, as if they really needed to be protected?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I stopped paying attention to the voices until their owners had almost reached us.

'Hey Katashi, what about all those people over there? Maybe they've seen it! Hey, you guys!'

'What's going on over there?' The instructor looked over to where the voices were coming from, and I did too. Three figures were coming towards us, and I instantly recognised them as Katashi, William, and another camp instructor.

'Excuse me, have any of you seen a vulpix running around anywhere?' Katashi looked over at us worriedly, and as soon as we made eye contact I couldn't help it, and just burst out laughing. How ridiculous that Katashi was asking me where his vulpix was!

'Hey you!' William glared at me. 'It's not funny! My friend Katashi needs his vulpix to compete in the Rainbow Tournament!'

'Well good luck finding her,' I laughed.

'Listen, you,' said the instructor who was with them. 'If you've seen anything, tell us right now! If a vulpix gets loose in– wait a second, I know you! You're that brat that caused all the trouble on the Spectrum High camp!'

I blinked, and belatedly realised that this second instructor was the one who'd supervised my group during canoeing. The one I'd embarrassed myself in front of by trying to talk to a wild ekans and forgetting that wild pokémon couldn't understand me while I was a human.

The second instructor turned to the one who was leading me away. 'Mike, this kid's nothing but trouble. I want her out of the park immediately!'

'I'm taking her out now. She's here without supervision, so I'm calling her parents to come and get her.'

'Good, get her out of here as soon as possible, and good riddance!'

Somehow, I couldn't be mad at this guy. I was just too amused by Katashi's situation to get made at anyone. So all I did was smile.

'That's okay, I'm on my way out. And good luck finding your vulpix, Katashi.'

'That's enough chat, let's get going.' The instructor nudged me, and I began following him away. As we headed away, I heard Katashi and William's voices.

'Hey Katashi, how did that girl know your name?'

'I was wondering the same thing.'

I smiled and kept walking.

* * *

When we reached the rangers' cabin, I was faced with the problem of what to tell the instructor about who I was. I didn't want him to call my parents because they'd freak out and get me in big trouble, so I had to use someone else's name and phone number, get their parents to come and get me, and try to convince them not to tell my parents the truth. My immediate thought was Amanda. She'd probably be okay with being an alibi, but she'd want me to tell her the truth, and how could I? There was no way she'd believe that I'd been caught by pokémon trainers as a vulpix. No, Amanda wasn't the one. I needed someone who wouldn't ask me for the truth . . . or someone who'd believe the truth.

I didn't want to admit it, but there were only two humans who'd believe me. I had no choice, I had to use them.

'Name?'

'Kit Taylor.' I had to try hard not to cringe when saying it.

'And your phone number?'

I paused. I didn't know Mrs Taylor's phone number, but since she lived in the apartment next to me, I knew her address. That was okay. I could convince them with that.

'I only just moved in with my grandmother a few days ago, so I don't know my phone number yet, but I can give you my address.'

'That's fine, we can look it up.' The instructor turned to his computer and pressed a few buttons. 'So it's Taylor, and your address?'

'Room thirty-eight, floor two, number one hundred and fifty-three Rawst Street, Spectrum City.'

The instructor pressed a few more buttons, then picked up the phone.

'Right, and it's your grandmother, is it?' he asked.

'Yeah.' I nodded. The instructor dialled Mrs Taylor's number, and put the phone to his ear. My heart started pounding. Come on Mrs Taylor, please figure out what's going on and play along with this. I can't do this without your help.

'Hello?' the instructor spoke into the phone. 'Mrs Taylor, is it? This is Mike from the Aruto National Park, we've got your granddaughter Kit down here . . . yes, that's right. Yes, she's fine, but we need you to come and pick her up, we can't let her go home without a parent or guardian. Yes, is that okay? Half an hour? Yes, that's fine, I'll see you then. Goodbye.' He turned to me. 'Your grandmother will be here in about half an hour to come and get you.'

I nodded, and couldn't keep the grin off my face. Russell Taylor may have been an annoying brat, but he sure had a cool grandmother.

* * *

Sure enough, half an hour later there was a knock at the door. The instructor opened it and in stepped Mrs Taylor, but she wasn't alone. Beside her was her grandson, arms folded across his chest and an annoyed look on his face. I glared back at him. What did he think he was doing here?

'Hello, I'm here to pick up Kit,' said Mrs Taylor.

'Oh!' the instructor exclaimed, looking from Mrs Taylor to me and back again a few times. 'You're her grandmother?'

I belatedly realised just how ridiculous a claim it was to say that she and I were related.

'Yes,' Mrs Taylor nodded. 'My son married a dark girl, if that's what you're wondering about.'

'Oh, no, I wasn't saying . . . I mean, yeah, it just wasn't what I was expecting, but that's okay. You can take her home now, that's fine.' I got to my feet and headed over to Mrs Taylor. 'But just make sure you know that her being here without supervision is against park rules, and _should_ result in fines.'

'I understand,' said Mrs Taylor. 'It won't happen again.'

We headed out to the car park, and once we were far enough away from the cabin, Taylor turned to me fiercely.

'What did you think you were doing, using my grandmother's name and number!?' he demanded. 'She has better things to do than bail you out of the mess you get yourself into!'

I glared at him. Despite being sure that I was the vulpix who had disappeared from Connor's pack, there was no way this guy could be the ninetales who'd been with me. I remembered Taylor the ninetales as a fun and kind friend, but Russell Taylor the human was no more than an annoying egotist who'd jump at the chance to argue with me. There was no way he and my childhood ninetales friend were the same person.

'Russell, there's no need for that,' said his grandmother calmly. 'She's been through a hard experience, she doesn't need you yelling at her. And besides, she did the right thing. She couldn't have given her real name or her parents would have found out where she was, and as far as they know, she's still at the farm.'

'What?' I asked. 'Why do they think I'm here?'

'Because after you were stupid enough to get yourself caught, I had to make something up to tell your parents why you weren't coming home!' Taylor growled at me.

'Oh, right,' I said. 'What did you tell them?'

'I said you'd been bitten by a wild pikachu that had the pokérus, and you had to be kept in isolation so it wouldn't spread.'

I blinked. 'Humans can be affected by the pokérus?'

'Yes,' said Taylor. 'And it spreads just as easily through humans as it does through pokémon, only it had negative effects instead of positive. When a human catches it, they've gotta be kept in isolation until it heals.'

'Humans contract the pokérus a lot on farms because they're in contact with so many pokémon,' said Mrs Taylor. 'So they have special isolation rooms where sufferers can stay until the virus leaves their system. It usually takes three days at the most, so you're lucky we got you back quickly or we would have needed a new excuse.'

'How long have I been gone?' I asked.

'Only one night,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You were caught yesterday. You don't know how happy we all were to hear you were safe, even Russell, though he won't admit it.'

'The only reason I'm happy is 'cause I don't have to make up excuses for your stupidity anymore,' muttered Taylor.

'Stupidity!?' I exclaimed. 'I was protecting Connor when those guys caught me!'

'And you did a real good job of protecting him, too!' Taylor snapped. 'So what if _you're_ safe? The prince is still trapped in that guy's pokéball and unlike you, he can't just transform into a human to escape.'

'That's right!' I exclaimed, turning to Mrs Taylor. 'We've gotta go back there and save Connor!'

'The prince is in there too?' Taylor asked. I nodded. 'Why didn't you say something? I thought those trainers had gone their separate ways, not stuck together!'

'Oh, yeah, I think they travel around together,' I said. 'They're both competing in some tournament coming up, the Rainbow Tournament, I think it was.'

'Rainbow Tournament?' Mrs Taylor asked. 'Why does that sound familiar? Rainbow . . . rainbow something . . ..'

'Huh?' I asked. 'It's just some tournament they're competing in. Katashi's manectric said the prize was a coloured feather, whatever that's supposed to be. Anyway, they–'

'Coloured feather?' Mrs Taylor asked. 'Kit, could that manectric have been talking about the Rainbow Wing?'

'Uh, I dunno, he said "coloured feather", but I suppose he could have meant that,' I shrugged. 'Either way it sounds like a pretty pathetic prize.'

'Pathetic!?' Taylor exclaimed. I turned to him. _Now_ what was his problem? 'Kid, don't you know anything? The Rainbow Wing is the legendary feather used to summon Ho-Oh!'

'Summon Ho-Oh?' I asked.

'Yes,' said Mrs Taylor. 'The feather is said to come from Ho-Oh herself, and only with it can the legendary fire bird be summoned. Both of you, do you know what this means? You're going to have to enter that tournament and win the Rainbow Wing!'

'Uh, and how do you suppose we do that?' I asked. 'We're not pokémon trainers.'

'Use your head, kid,' said Taylor. 'We're not trainers, but we can act as trainers. I'll enter as a pokémon. You enter as my trainer.'

I couldn't help but laugh. 'You mean I get to order you around?'

'No. You get to pretend to order me around while I battle using my own skills. There's no sense doing it the other way around, even with me as your trainer your level's way too low to get anywhere.'

'Oh yeah!? I'll show you a thing or two! How about you and me have a battle, right here, right now!'

I didn't care how many years' experience he had. I was eager to show him that I could become a pokémon at will, and not only that, I could breathe fire too.

'Don't kid yourself, I could knock you out with a Tail Whip, and that attack doesn't even normally do damage,' smiled Taylor.

'Oh yeah, well I could use Growl and make you too scared to even _try_ a Tail Whip!'

Taylor laughed. 'Scared? By a Growl from you? As if you could even growl at all against an opponent like me. You'd only be able to whimper.'

'Stop it, you two,' said Mrs Taylor firmly. 'The last thing we need is for you two to be fighting. Kit, I don't want to sound offensive, but I agree with Russell that you should act as the trainer. I'm not questioning your battle skills, but Russell _has_ had a lot more experience. I'm sure you're a great battler, but you have a strong personality and a lot of determination, and I think that would make you a great trainer.' I shrugged. As much as I wanted to be able to enter as a battler, I had to admit that it would be fun to act as Taylor's trainer, giving him orders in battle (though whether he'd obey them was a whole other issue).

'Now,' Mrs Taylor continued, 'this may sound harsh, but I think it's best we leave the prince with that human and try to rescue him at the tournament. The staff of the park are already suspicious of Kit, and if we do manage to get him back, we could be charged for both trespassing and stealing. If we wait until the tournament, we can come up with a plan, even something like offering to trade him for Russell, then after the trade have Russell change back into a human and escape.'

'Or better yet, let William keep him!' I smirked.

'Now now, cut that out,' said Mrs Taylor. 'We're all in this together, and we'll never do anything to endanger each other. But first, we need to look up some information on this tournament and find out the requirements for entry. The trainers there may be very tough, so you'll need to do a lot of training before you can enter.'

* * *

'Kit!'

As soon as I opened the door, my mother threw her arms around me.

'Oh Kit, we were so worried! When that Taylor boy called we were so shocked, we had no idea that virus could affect humans too!'

Mrs Taylor stepped forward. 'It doesn't spread naturally from pokémon to humans, only through blood contact like bites.'

'What were you doing with a wild pikachu anyway?' Mum asked firmly. 'You should know that wild pokémon have diseases! That was very irresponsible even going near one!'

'Actually, very few wild pokémon have diseases,' said Taylor, and pushed his glasses up as if to add to his authority. I rolled my eyes. 'Humans just assume things like that because they won't take the time to get to know pokémon.'

'And speaking of getting to know each other, we'd like an explanation of why you were at this boy's house to begin with,' said my father, folding his arms.

I gaped at him. 'You can not honestly be suggesting that that ugly disgusting hairy stuck-up self-absorbed moron and I are . . ..'

'Can I use your bathroom?' Taylor asked. 'I'm gonna be sick.'

'Oh, you don't have to worry about that,' said Mrs Taylor with a smile. 'Russell already has a very nice girlfriend named Elsie.'

'Grandma, stop that!' Taylor moaned. 'It's not funny anymore!'

I laughed. It was always great to see Taylor embarrassed. I turned back to my father.

'It was an art assignment,' I said. 'We had to sketch pokémon in their native habitats. After the pikachu bit me, Taylor's farm was _unfortunately_ the closest building.'

'You didn't mention anything to us about an art assignment,' said Dad. 'You _know_ you're not supposed to go out without telling us, _especially_ on your own.'

'Exactly, that's why I didn't tell you You would've made someone go with me, and I can't work while someone's looking over my shoulder.'

'That's not good enough, Katherine!'

I moaned. I hated it when he used my full name. Now I was in for a lecture.

* * *

After what seemed like hours of arguing, my parents finally reached a conclusion, which was that I was grounded for two weeks. The funny part was that they asked Mrs Taylor if she could watch me while they weren't home. This of course made things a lot easier. We could prepare for the tournament without having to worry about my parents getting me in trouble. So the next day after school, Taylor and I went to his grandmother's apartment to find out what she'd discovered about the tournament.

When we stepped into Mrs Taylor's apartment, I was shocked to see two pokémon sitting on her lounge. I recognised the espeon and kecleon instantly.

'_Kit!_' Cam smiled, leaping off the lounge and rushing over to me.

'Hi Cam,' I bent down and gave him a pat on the head. 'What are you doing here?'

'_Elsie said she was coming here to meet you and Taylor, and asked if I wanted to come too,_' said Cam. '_I was so worried when those humans took you. I know those balls they keep you in are horrible._'

He shuddered, and I gave him a sympathetic look, remembering the time he'd been caught by Team Magma.

'_I'm so glad you're safe,_' he smiled up at me, and I smiled back. After Taylor had met me with insults and my parents had met me with lectures, it felt great for someone to actually be happy that I was back.

'Yes, we're all happy that Kit's safe again and that Elsie recovered well,' said Mrs Taylor. I glanced over at where Elsie was rubbing her head against Taylor's leg. She looked perfectly healthy, but the last time I'd seen her she'd been passed out from Trapinch's assault. It was amazing how quickly pokémon could recover. They'd be fainted one minute, then running around happily or battling furiously the next. 'But unfortunately, prince Connor isn't quite so lucky. We need to prepare thoroughly for this tournament so that we can get him back and hopefully win that Rainbow Wing too.'

'I reckon we can do it, as long as the kid shuts up and lets us battle,' said Taylor.

'Russell, don't be arrogant,' said his grandmother. 'Kit's role is just as important as yours. Now, the tournament begins in one month. Entries are actually closed, but don't worry, I'll use my status as a pokémon researcher to get you in somehow. Each trainer has to use three pokémon, but so far we only have two: Russell and Elsie.'

'That's okay, we can use one of the farm pokémon,' said Taylor.

'That's what I was thinking.' Mrs Taylor nodded. 'Even though he's also a fire-type, perhaps Kumar–'

'_No._'

I turned to Elsie to see her looking up at Mrs Taylor, her face so serious that it was almost expressionless. What was that all about?

'Grandma, we can't do that,' said Taylor quietly, glancing from Elsie to his grandmother. Mrs Taylor paused, then nodded.

'I apologise, Elsie. I was only thinking about who was strongest, I didn't consider the implications.'

'Who's Kumar?' I asked. There was silence for a moment.

'Maybe we should try one of the tauros,' said Taylor.

'Maybe,' said his grandmother. 'Or a grumpig, perhaps?'

'Uh . . .' I said. 'Are you ignoring me on purpose? I asked a question, you know.'

Taylor turned to me with a glare. 'It's none of your business, okay?'

'Well excuse me!' I exclaimed. 'I thought I was part of this little tournament committee, but if it's none of my business, I guess I'm not wanted.'

'It's nothing to do with the tournament, so just forget about it and stay focussed,' said Taylor. 'We need a third pokémon to enter with, that's what's important right now.'

'_I know I'm not a very good battler . . ._' ventured Cam. '_But I really want to help. If I train a lot before the tournament, couldn't . . . couldn't I be your third pokémon?_'

'No way!' I cut in before anyone else could respond. 'Cam, if you battle it could activate your Colour Change ability!'

'_I know_,' said Cam. '_But I'm willing to risk it. I really want to help you and Taylor summon Ho-Oh, and I really want to save prince Connor, but so far I haven't been able to do anything to help. I know I'm not very strong now but I'll get stronger, I promise!_'

'It's up to you, Cam,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You may not realise it, but you have helped so far. You've been a good friend to Kit, and sometimes that's the best help anyone could ever receive. But if you really want to battle, we won't stand in your way.'

'Yes we will!' I exclaimed. 'You didn't see what happened to him when Colour Change activated! He turned into a totally different person! He was vicious and violent and . . . and everything that Cam isn't! I'm not gonna let that happen again!'

Cam sighed. '_Kit's right, my ability makes me a worthless battler. I'll only get in the way_.'

'No, Cam,' I sighed, shaking my head. 'You don't get in the way, you . . . you just . . . it's just that I hate seeing you turn into someone you're not.'

'Someone he's not?' Taylor asked. 'If you've seen him become it, how can it be someone he's not?'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I demanded.

'It's not someone he's not if he can be it,' said Taylor. 'If can be that way, it's a part of him, it's someone he is. It's just a different side to what you normally see. That doesn't mean it's not him. You might not like it, and he might not like it himself, but it's part of him.'

'You don't know what you're talking about,' I said, looking away from him. That monster wasn't Cam, it was someone else altogether. Someone vicious, someone cold-hearted, someone completely opposite to who Cam really was.

'_Whether it's part of me or not, I'm willing to let it come out if it means I can help you win the tournament,_' said Cam.

'Then it's decided,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Kit's pokémon team will be Russell, Elsie and Cam.'

I narrowed my eyes. Some ally she was, putting Cam into danger like that. Not only would battle make Cam's Colour Change ability activate, but he was a much weaker fighter than Taylor and Elsie. He could get hurt out there! But since I was acting as the trainer, I'd be making the decisions. I just wouldn't send Cam out into battle, I'd rely on Taylor and Elsie to do the fighting. I just hoped they'd be strong enough on their own.

* * *

The next few weeks were spent in training. While Taylor, Elsie and Cam were out physically training, I had to do a lot of mental preparation. I only knew the basics of pokémon battling, from what I'd seen on TV or learned in biology. I needed to learn details. Types, statistics, moves, abilities, items . . . it was all so much to try to learn in so small a time frame. I found myself spending lunch times in the library reading up on battle data, which my friends found strange. Then when I took to the computer labs to play pokémon battle simulation games, they thought I was plain crazy. But despite the fact that they were nothing compared to the real thing, those simulations were necessary. I owed it to Connor to free him from William, and I had a duty to Ho-Oh, though I still wasn't really sure what it was.

'So the kid's turned into a lone vulpix after all.'

I moaned as I heard Taylor's voice behind me as I battled on one of the simulations one lunch time.

'And after all that talk about how this wouldn't affect your friendships with humans, already you're sitting here on your own turning to computers for companionship.'

'Hey, if you wanna lose this tournament, I'll gladly stop this stupid game and go be with my friends.'

Taylor laughed as he sat down at the computer beside me. 'Kid, listen, your so-called "training" on this game's gonna have no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the tournament. You're not a pokémon trainer, you're an actor. You're just a tool, all you've gotta do is step up there and _act_ like you're giving us orders. But we're not gonna be listening to you, we know a lot more about battle than you do, and we're gonna be the ones making the decisions.'

'We'll see about that.'

'We sure will. Now if you ask me, it's the Hoenn pinball game that's the most fun.'

I glanced at his screen to see him loading some pinball game on the computer. I rolled my eyes and turned back to my own screen.

'Ooh, check it out, bonus round already! I rule this game!'

I shook my head and tried to ignore him, but something in the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned to look at his monitor. He was shooting a pinball around in a screen made to look like a grassy park, with a pond of water and a large tree at the top. Running around the screen was a kecleon, and it was this that Taylor was trying to hit with his pokéball-shaped pinball. I cringed as the ball hit and the kecleon fell over with an electronic cry. I knew it was only a game, but I couldn't help thinking of Cam. In this tournament that was coming up, would he be running around frantically like that, only to be hit when he was least expecting it? Would he fall over with a cry much harsher, much more real than that electronic beep? I watched as Taylor hit the kecleon again and again, until it waved a white flag and collapsed, and the game excitedly declared that the bonus round was clear. I sighed and looked back at my own game, where I was battling with my own simulated kecleon. I used a Psybeam to finish off my opponent's gloom, and then he sent out a ninetales. I smiled. I'd already figured out that my kecleon's Hidden Power was water-type.

'Watch this,' I grinned, and once I was sure Taylor was watching, commanded my kecleon to use Hidden Power. The ninetales fainted in one hit, its sprite dropping down from the screen.

'Ooh, that hurt,' said Taylor sarcastically. I narrowed my eyes. Not as much as I'll hurt you if you dare put Cam in danger in this tournament.


	25. Chapter 24: Round One, Fake Tears

OK, the horizontal lines don't appear to be working anymore, and I still can't figure out how to get double line breaks to show up. So unfortunately, it's back to having the chapter in one big chunk instead of being divided up where it's meant to be. If anyone knows how to solve this, please tell me. 

**Chapter Twenty-Four - Round One, Fake Tears**

It wasn't long before the day of the Rainbow Tournament arrived. I woke up early, got dressed and ate breakfast, then went out onto the balcony and sat down with one of the pokémon battling books I'd borrowed from the library. I knew it was too late to really learn anything more, but I had to occupy myself until my parents left for work, and at least this way I'd be refreshing my memory a bit for the tournament. I flicked idly through the pages, looking at the words without really reading them. Come on, hurry up and go to work so I can leave without having to come up with a stupid excuse!

'_Good morning Kit!_'

The cheerful voice cut off my thoughts, and I turned to see who it belonged to. I caught sight of a kecleon sitting on the railing of next door's balcony.

'Hi Cam,' I smiled, trying to keep myself in a good mood and not start worrying about him going into battle.

'_Are you all ready for the tournament?_' Cam asked.

'Yeah,' I nodded. I knew that I was nervous, but I couldn't let Cam see that. That would only make him worried. I had to stay confident so that Cam would stay confident too.

'How many times do I have to tell you, kid? It doesn't _matter_ if you're ready! We're not your trained pokémon, we don't have to listen to a word you say. You're just an actor, nothing more.'

'Oh yeah!?' I turned to Taylor angrily as he stepped out onto his grandmother's balcony. 'Well maybe I don't want you to listen to me, I want you to go ahead and do your own thing so I can watch you get knocked out and prove how bad a battler you are!'

Taylor laughed. 'The only thing we'll be proving today is how little you know about pokémon battles.'

Mrs Taylor drove us to a neighbouring city called Aurous City, where the Rainbow Tournament was being held. The site of the tournament was a huge oval called Aurous Sports Ground, which I recognised as the one my school used for sports days. But today was a whole different kind of sport altogether. Tents lined the outskirts of the oval, and trainers, some with their pokémon outside their pokéballs, were gathering around the different stalls. As we walked through towards the registration desk, I looked around at the stalls. Some were selling souvenirs, but the most popular were selling items such as potions and revives. Why the competitors hadn't stocked up on items before arriving I wasn't sure, but the stores were certainly getting a lot of business. As the trainers went around to the various stalls, many of them greeted one another excitedly, like old friends. It seemed that a lot of the competitors knew each other, whether from previous tournaments or just through their daily training. This was probably why so many of them seemed to be looking at us suspiciously as we walked by; they were wondering where we'd come from, why they hadn't seen us before. No problem; they'd all know who we were once we won the tournament and took home that Rainbow Wing today. I grinned.

We soon reached the registration desk, where I gave my name and my trainer ID number (how Mrs Taylor had managed to get me a trainer ID number, I didn't even ask). The man behind the desk questioned why my pokémon weren't inside their balls, and I told him that I didn't like to keep them confined. From my own experience of being inside one of those things, I knew that if I ever had pokémon of my own, there's no way I'd ever keep them inside those nasty balls.

After signing in, we headed over to the battle roster to see who we'd be up against. In our first round, we were battling against someone called Fleur. Of course, a name wasn't much use when none of us knew any of the trainers competing. So instead I scanned my eyes over the roster for William and Katashi's names. Sure enough, they were there.

'Look at this,' said Mrs Taylor. 'As long as you and William both win your first round matches, you'll be battling each other in the second round.'

'Good,' I nodded. While I knew it would be more satisfying to knock out Katashi than William, I knew that William was our main concern as long as Connor was being held captive by him.

'_But how are we going to rescue Prince Connor?_' Cam asked, looking up at me. '_Beating William in the tournament won't get him back._'

'That's OK, I've got an idea,' I smiled.

'_That's a first,_' muttered Taylor.

'Be quiet, Ninetales, or you'll go back in your pokéball!' I grinned. Taylor growled at me, and I just laughed. Man, this was fun already. He could show off as much as he liked about his battle skills, but that'd be nowhere near as much fun as I was gonna have acting as his trainer.

'Don't start arguing, you two,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You need to call a truce, at least for the length of the tournament. No trainer and pokémon team who argues is going to be able to win.'

'Yeah, and no disobedient pokémon is gonna win, so you'd better just do what I say, Ninetales,' I smiled.

'Kit, don't be cruel,' said Mrs Taylor. 'The reason trained pokémon listen to their trainers is that they share mutual respect, and even though you two aren't really a training pair, you still need to show respect for each other or you'll never win this tournament. Now come on, it's only half an hour until the tournament starts, and I don't want to get bad seats!'

We had to sit through four battles before it was our turn. Although it was good to watch some live battling to get an idea of what it would be like, it did get a little tedious, and the longer it went on, the more anxious I got. I just wanted to get our battle over with and move on to the next round so we could fight William, and once that was over with, I could concentrate on the rest of the tournament. We could win that Rainbow Wing, I was sure of it, but only if we managed to rescue Connor first.

Finally, it was our turn to battle. My hands were sweating as they called my name, but I swallowed down my nerves and marched into the arena, my battling team by my side. Unlike the big Kanto or Johto tournaments that I'd sometimes watched on TV, this little tournament didn't have elaborate trainer boxes for us to stand in, and instead the trainers just stood on either end of the grassy field. I watched my opponent step out onto her side of the field. She was a girl of around my age, with shoulder-length orange hair, and wore a loose blue dress. She certainly wasn't how I pictured an average trainer, but I couldn't let that mean I'd underestimate her; she was surely just as formidable as any other opponent.

'Aaaand here we are in the fifth battle of the first round of Aurous City's Rainbow Tournament, brought to you by Regice Refridgerators and Wonder Guard Security! Here we have two new trainers to the tournament scene, Kit from Spectrum City and Fleur from Lime Town! As you can see, Kit's pokémon are already out of their pokéballs, but who knows what battlers Fleur has ready to take them on! Will she be able to defeat Kit's team? We'll soon find out which of these two newcomers is worthy of continuing to the next round and moving one step closer to that Rainbow Wing! Three, two, one, battle!'

A buzzer sounded, and there we were, in the midst of our first tournament battle. I looked over at my opponent to see what pokémon she'd send out first . . . and all I was met with was an equally anticipatory stare.

'_Doesn't look like she's gonna go first,_' said Taylor. '_I'll just go._'

He stepped out in front of me onto the battle field, and I ground my teeth.

'Who said _you_ were making the decisions, huh!?' I demanded.

'Well look at this folks, it seems that Kit's ninetales has taken it upon itself to start the battle! Kit doesn't seem too happy about her pokémon's decision. Could this disobedience cost them the match? We'll find out soon!'

Fleur smiled. 'Cute ninetales, but it's no match for my pokémon. Taillow, I choose you!'

She tossed her pokéball and out popped a small blue bird. "No match"? This thing was about a tenth the size of Taylor! I may not have been an experienced battler, but I knew an easy win when I saw one. And hey, if somehow this thing managed to be stronger, at least it'd be funny to see Taylor knocked out by a little taillow.

'OK Taillow, let's start things off with Focus Energy!'

'_You got it!_' The little bird stood deadly still and closed his eyes, almost as if meditating. Was there any point to this move? What a waste of a turn. Why didn't he just attack?

'Taylor!' I commanded, and couldn't help grinning wildly. This was so fun! 'Use . . .' Then the fun of the situation disintegrated as I belatedly realised I didn't actually know what moves Taylor knew.

'_Say Agility,_' said Taylor.

'Agility!?' I exclaimed. 'You've gotta be kidding! What kind of stupid move is that?'

Taylor shook his head. '_Fine, I'll just do what I want and make you look like a bad trainer._'

'_What's going on?_' Taillow asked. '_Your trainer can understand you?_'

'_She _isn't_ my trainer,_' said Taylor. '_But this isn't the time for chit-chat, we're in a battle here!_'

With that, he began darting around the field in an attempt to increase his speed or whatever stupid effect that move had. What a waste! He could have made a good attack by now!

'Well look at the situation we've got here!' The announcer said excitedly. 'Kit's just told her ninetales that Agility is a stupid move, but it's gone ahead and used it! Could this disobedience cost her the match? Keep watching, folks!'

'_Kit, Agility means that Taylor should be faster than Taillow now,_' said Elsie.

'I know that!' I snapped. 'But that's so stupid.' I raised my voice. 'Well if you're so fast now, why don't you hurry up and attack? Use Flamethrower, you moron!'

'_I just want you to know, I'm not doing this because you told me to,_' said Taylor, before throwing his head forward and blasting a stream of fire at Taillow. The bird cried out as he was caught in the flames. When the fire dispersed, he clutched at his wing.

'_Ow! Ow!_' he cried.

'_Burned, are you?_' Taylor smiled. The taillow shot him a nasty glare.

'_Don't think yourself lucky yet,_' he said. '_I've got plenty more tricks up my wing!_'

'_Is that so?_' Taylor asked. '_Let's see 'em, then._'

I turned and looked at Taillow's trainer, who just smiled over at me.

'Burning my taillow wasn't as smart as you think, you know,' she smiled. I just glared at her. She could act cocky all she wanted, but everyone knew that a burn put a pokémon at a disadvantage; it would lose health gradually even if it wasn't hit by any attacks. 'But I wouldn't have expected you to know that a status condition only makes a gutsy pokémon like Taillow stronger. Now Taillow, show it the power of Guts! Use Wing Attack!'

'_Take this!_' Taillow shot through the air towards Taylor, and slapped him hard with his wings. Taylor cringed and stumbled back, almost falling over. I blinked. How could an attack from a little bird like that be so powerful?

'_I'm sure that was a critical hit,_' said Elsie. '_Taylor, are you OK?_'

'_I'm fine._' Taylor forced himself to get up and face his opponent, but I could see the pain in his face. '_Even with Focus Energy, you won't get a critical hit like that every turn, and I can tell you're a much lower level than me. My Flamethrower's still more powerful than that Wing Attack._'

'_Whatever you say,_' shrugged the taillow. Taylor narrowed his eyes, then opened his mouth and shot out another flamethrower.

'Hey!' I called. 'I never told you to do that!' What did he think he was doing, taking all the credit for thinking of what attack to use?

'_So what?_' Taylor asked, stepping back as his flames slammed into the taillow and knocked it back. '_I don't know how many times I have to tell you, you're not my trainer!_'

I ground my teeth. I wasn't gonna put up with this. He was making me look bad. Even if we managed to win this tournament, everyone was gonna remember me as the bad trainer who couldn't control her disobedient ninetales. But what could I do? I could tell him to swap with Elsie, who would probably co-operate with me more, but Taylor probably wouldn't even listen to my order to return.

I looked over at my opponent. The little taillow was cringing and holding his wing desperately. He probably couldn't hold on much longer. If Taylor used one more Flamethrower, he could finish him off.

'Taillow, don't let that ninetales get too cocky! Time for Endeavour!'

The taillow took a deep breath, then puffed out his chest and flew at Taylor. I blinked as he managed to knock Taylor down, and the ninetales struggled to get to his feet, then coughed and fell back down.

'_Taylor!_' Elsie cried.

'What the heck?' I asked. 'This is Taylor we're talking about, but I would've thought even _he'd_ be able to handle an attack from some stupid little bird!'

'_Now you know how it feels,_' said Taillow, then puffed and stumbled back a few steps.

'Don't you know anything?' Fleur asked. 'Endeavour reduces the opponent's HP to the same level as the user's. You may have done a lot of damage to my taillow, but your ninetales is done for!'

'_That's what you think,_' Taylor panted, then opened his mouth and shot out another Flamethrower. When the fire hit Taillow, the little bird collapsed in defeat.

'And Fleur's taillow has fainted!' The announcer called. 'Looks like Kit's managed to get the lead, but her ninetales has suffered a lot in the effort! Will she be able to stay ahead, or will Fleur's next pokémon turn the tables?'

Well, that was one down, but if Taylor couldn't handle the other two . . . I turned to Elsie, but to my surprise, she'd disappeared.

'_Are you OK, Taylor?_'

At the sound of her voice, I turned to see Elsie over on the battlefield beside Taylor, nudging him softly. I rolled my eyes.

'_I'm fine,_' Taylor said, forcing himself to his feet.

'_Don't push yourself too hard,_' said Elsie. '_I'll take it from here._'

Taylor shook his head. '_I can handle it._'

'No you can't, you moron!' I called. 'Hurry up and get back here! Elsie's clearly better than you are, I can't believe you nearly lost to a little taillow!'

Taylor turned and glared at me, but before he could snap at me, the announcer spoke.

'This is a warning to the trainer Kit. You have one minute to take one of your pokémon off the field or you will be disqualified! The rules of single battles clearly state that a trainer may only have one pokémon on the field at a time, even during changeover. You have one minute, staring now.'

Taylor sighed. '_I'm listening to Elsie, not you._'

With that, he loped back over to Cam and me.

'Good ninetales,' I said, and he snarled at me.

'_Are you all right?_' Cam asked.

'_Yeah,_' said Taylor. '_I'll just take a moment to rest. Elsie can take down the next one, but I'll be back for the third._'

'Only if I say so!' I smiled, and looked back over to Elsie. I saw that the fainted taillow had been returned to his pokéball, and Fleur had her next one ready.

'Don't think you're gonna be able to take my next one down that easily,' she said. 'I choose Plusle!'

She tossed her pokéball into the arena and a small yellow mouse with long ears appeared. What was with this girl? First that little bird and now a rodent? Did she really expect to be able to beat us with these pokémon?

'Well it looks like both trainers have fresh pokémon on the field,' said the announcer. 'Now let's see how Kit's espeon shapes up against Fleur's plusle!'

'Yeah, like that plusle's gonna be able to do anything to Elsie,' I rolled my eyes.

'You'll see!' Fleur smiled. 'Plusle, start off with Thunder Wave!'

'_See how you like this!_' Plusle smiled, as electricity shot out from the plus signs on her cheeks. The sparks hit Elsie, and although I could clearly see that they'd done no damage to her HP, her body completely stiffened up, paralysed. I'd felt triumphant when Taillow had been burned, but it was something different altogether to be on the receiving end of a status condition. Hopefully Elsie's battling skills would let her win this even while paralysed.

'_That wasn't as smart as you think,_' Elsie raised her head to look at Plusle, and her eyes glowed briefly. Suddenly Plusle cried out as her own body stiffened up.

'What!?' Fleur exclaimed. 'What happened, Plusle?'

'_I'm . . . I'm paralysed too . . ._' Plusle stammered.

I grinned as I belatedly remembered what I'd read about espeons. They had an ability called Synchronise, which meant that if they were affected by a status condition, the opponent was subjected the same condition.

'_Kit, I'm going to use Calm Mind,_' said Elsie. '_You can call it out._'

'Calm Mind!?' I exclaimed. 'What is wrong with you people? Just use Psychic!'

'_I will, but I think it's more important to increase my stats first,_' said Elsie. '_Plusles have quite high special attack strength, and-_'

'I don't care, just use Psychic!' I told her.

Elsie sighed. '_All right, if that's what you think is best._'

I smiled as she turned to Plusle and concentrated her psychic energy on her. She was much more co-operative than that annoying Taylor. This was gonna be an easy win!

Plusle cried out and held her head with her tiny paws, but there was no escaping the psychic attack. As a purple glow appeared around her body, she was thrown back, and landed in the dirt with a thump. She pulled herself to her feet and waited for her trainer's command.

'Plusle, you know what to do! Fake Tears!'

Plusle nodded determinedly, and then suddenly her expression totally changed, her mouth shaking, her eyes swelling up, and then suddenly she burst into tears.

'_What . . . what's wrong?_' Elsie asked uncertainly.

'You're kidding me Elsie, don't tell me you're gonna fall for that!' I shook my head. 'Were you even listening? The attack's freaking called _Fake_ Tears! It's just an act!'

'_It doesn't look like an act . . ._' Elsie said uncertainly.

'Aren't you supposed to be psychic?' I asked. 'As if you can't see through that! Come on, just ignore it and use Psychic!'

'_I'll do my best,_' said Elsie. She narrowed her eyes at Plusle and unleashed another attack, and I smiled as Plusle was thrown back again, the attack dealing a lot of damage to her.

'Hang in there, Plusle!' Fleur called. 'Use Charge!'

Plusle's tearful expression changed, and she shut her eyes and clenched her fists, concentrating her energy as sparks started forming around her cheeks.

'Jeez, is this thing even gonna attack anytime soon?' I asked. 'Come on Elsie, another Psychic! You might be able to finish it off!'

'_I . . . I can't . . ._' Elsie stuttered.

'You can't!?' I exclaimed. 'What are you talking about?'

'_I can't move . . ._' The espeon cringed, and I could see the strain on her face as she tried to force her body into motion, but to no avail.

'Well try harder!' I yelled at her. 'You can't give in to some stupid little plusle! Just keep trying!'

'_I . . . I'm sorry, Kit . . ._' Elsie sighed.

'Sorry's not gonna win any battles!' I yelled. 'I mean, come on, you're supposed to be psychic, how can you let a physical ailment stop you from attacking anyway?'

'_I'm sorry._' Though her body couldn't move, Elsie's ears and tail still drooped.

'That's just the chance we need!' Fleur smiled. 'Now Plusle, use Spark!'

'_See how you like this!_' Plusle gathered the energy that had been forming around her cheeks, and blasted it out at Elsie. The espeon cried out in pain and fell to the ground, waves of electricity still bouncing around her fur.

'_Elsie!_' Taylor exclaimed, then turned to me with a glare. '_How could you have been so stupid? If you'd only listened to her and let her use Calm Mind, that attack wouldn't have been so harsh!_'

I rolled my eyes. 'Moves like Calm Mind are just a waste of time. A few more Psychics and that plusle will faint anyway.'

'_One more Spark and Elsie could faint!_' Taylor snarled. '_Stop acting like you know about pokémon battles because you obviously know nothing! Spark isn't even a very powerful attack, you know! But because of Fake Tears and Charge, it did really huge damage!_'

'I know that, you moron. But in the time it took to use those moves, she could've used two more Sparks!'

'_Who cares? They wouldn't have been anywhere near as powerful as that one._' Taylor sighed. '_You'll never learn. But thanks to you, it's too late to use Calm Mind effectively now. Elsie, you'll have to use Psychic!_'

'Look who's talking, Mr Stat-Moves-Are-So-Cool.'

Taylor just snarled at me and turned back to Elsie. '_Can you keep battling, Elsie?_'

'_Yes,_' Elsie pulled herself up, then turned to Plusle and used another Psychic attack. I could see the pain in the rodent's face. She was getting weak. Maybe one more Psychic could take her down . . . if Elsie managed to survive the next Spark, that was.

'Plusle, finish it off with another Spark!'

'_Got it,_' Plusle nodded, and went to take a step towards Elsie, but stopped. She ground her teeth and tried to push her short legs forward, but they wouldn't budge.

I broke into a smile. I'd forgotten that Plusle was paralysed! And it was about time her paralysis kicked in, too! Now Elsie had the chance to attack again.

'_Elsie, hit it with another Psychic!_' I called. Elsie nodded, and threw Plusle back again with her psychic powers. The little electric pokémon tried to get up, but fell back down to the ground.

'Kit has managed to take down another of Fleur's pokémon!' The announcer called. 'Now Fleur is down to her last pokémon while none of Kit's have fainted yet! Let's see if Fleur has a pokémon that can take them down!'

'Hmph,' said Fleur, as she held out her pokéball and recalled her plusle. 'You may have beaten two of my pokémon, but your ninetales and espeon are as good as beat too.'

I glanced at Elsie and then at Taylor. She was right. I couldn't get ahead of myself and think we'd won this. Having three pokémon left when she only had one wasn't as great an advantage as it sounded. Elsie and Taylor could drop with one good hit, and that would leave me with Cam . . . I swallowed. No, Elsie and Taylor would just have to try harder. There was no way I was gonna let Cam battle out there.

'Now, let's see if they can handle this!' Fleur smiled. 'I choose you, Bulbasaur!'

She threw her third pokéball, and a small green reptile with a plant growing on his back appeared. I smiled. A bulbasaur? This wasn't so bad after all. Taylor's Flamethrower would be super-effective against it.

'OK Taylor,' I said. 'Go switch with Elsie!'

'_For once you've made a good decision,_' muttered Taylor, getting to his feet.

'_No,_' Elsie shook her head. '_You need to rest, Taylor. I can handle it._'

'Sure you're way better than Taylor and all,' I said. 'But his Flamethrower's super-effective against Bulbasaur, it'll knock him out easily.'

'_Yes,_' said Elsie. '_But my psychic attacks are super-effective against him too._'

I paused. What was she talking about? I'd stared at that type match-up table for hours on end, and I was sure I'd memorised it. Psychic attacks weren't super-effective against grass-types! Jeez, it was a good thing these guys had me for a trainer. They may have had some powerful attacks, but they obviously needed me for the theory part of battling.

'No they're not,' I said. 'Only fire, ice, bug, poison and flying are super-effective against grass-types!'

'_This is exactly why you'd never make it as a trainer,_' said Taylor, shaking his head. '_Bulbasaur is a dual-type. It's got characteristics of both grass and poison types._'

I blinked, then narrowed my eyes. 'I know that, you moron! I was just testing you!'

'_Yeah, whatever, kid,_' said Taylor. '_You keep fooling yourself._'

I glared at him. So I'd made one little mistake. Big deal. He'd been battling for years. I bet he couldn't have learnt all the stuff I had in a time period as short as what I'd been given.

'_I'll battle this one,_' said Elsie. '_You keep resting for the next round._'

'_All right,_' said Taylor. '_But if you want me to take over, just say so._'

'_I'll be fine,_' said Elsie, and turned to face the bulbasaur.

'_How touching,_' he said. '_Too bad neither of you will be able to beat me!_'

'_We'll see,_' said Elsie, getting ready in a battle stance.

'Bulbasaur, it's still paralysed, so you should be faster than it,' said Fleur. 'Start off with Leech Seed!'

Bulbasaur nodded, then lowered its head and raised the bulb on his back. He shot a seed out of the bulb's opening, and it hit Elsie, implanting itself on her fur. Elsie quickly turned to Bulbasaur and used another Psychic attack, sending him flying back. He puffed and got firmly to his feet, but I could see how painful the super-effective attack had been. We could win this, I was sure of it.

The seed on Elsie's fur suddenly sprouted, and small vines wrapped around her body, squeezing the energy out of her. She winced but stayed on her feet, determined.

'Your espeon's tough, but it won't last much longer against Bulbasaur!' said Fleur. 'Bulbasaur, Vine Whip!'

'_Take that!_' Bulbasaur shot two vines out from underneath the bulb on his back, slapping Elsie with them. The espeon cried out and fell to the ground. She was nearly out of energy. But her Psychic attack was both powerful and super-effective . . . maybe it could even knock Bulbasaur out.

'Come on Elsie, use Psychic again!' I called.

'_I . . ._' Elsie puffed. I saw her struggling to pull her legs up, but it was no use. Stuck on the ground, she turned her head to Bulbasaur and narrowed her eyes. They began to glow, but after just a second or two the glow faded, and she dropped her head down. '_I'm sorry . . . the paralysis . . .._'

The vines from the seed on her back squeezed her tightly, and she sighed as she collapsed on the ground, the last of her energy exhausted.

'Fleur has managed to knock Kit's espeon out!' The announcer called. 'Let's see what move Kit will make next. Will she send out her kecleon, or will her injured ninetales be enough to beat Bulbasaur?'

'_I'll never forgive you for that,_' Taylor said coldly, staring over at Elsie's motionless body.

'Me!?' I exclaimed. 'It's her fault for giving in to that stupid plusle's paralysis!' I shook my head and stepped into the arena, walking over to Elsie. I bent down to her and touched her softly. I swallowed. Of course it was her fault. I'd told her to switch with Taylor. It should have been him out there getting beaten up, not her.

But the sight of her still body filled me with hybrid feelings. Sympathy for the pain she'd gone through, admiration for the way she'd forced herself to keep battling, and although I found it hard to admit to myself, even a touch of guilt, that maybe it had been my fault, that maybe I should have listened to her suggestions of what move to use instead of blindly ordering her to keep attacking with Psychic.

I shook my head as I scooped her into my arms and headed back. It didn't matter now anyway. We still had a battle to win.

When I got back to my position, Taylor walked past me onto the battlefield. I laid Elsie on the ground and turned to the ninetales. He was still heavily injured from his battle with Taillow, but there he was, willing to fight on.

'_Wouldn't it be better for me to battle?_' Cam asked uncertainly.

Maybe he was right, but I couldn't let him. It was too much of a risk, and besides, Taylor _did_ have the type advantage . . ..

'No,' I said. 'If he's stupid enough to want to battle, that's his own fault.'

But I knew that it wasn't really stupidity that had made him go out there. I knew that it was benevolence, determination, and bravery. Deep down, behind all the insults and jibes, I knew that Taylor was brave. And I also knew that he was strong, and that even in his injured state, he had a good chance to win this.

'Bulbasaur, it's weak, we should be able to finish it off!' Fleur called. 'Use Vine Whip!'

Bulbasaur shot his vines out at Taylor and hit him with them, and although it still must have hurt, the attack was weak compared to how it had been against Elsie. Taylor stood firm and blasted a huge Flamethrower at the grass pokémon. The bulb on his back caught alight, and he cried out as the flames spread over his body, until he fell down, charred and defeated.

'No!' Fleur exclaimed. 'Bulbasaur!'

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. We'd gotten through the battle, and although Elsie and Taylor had put themselves through a lot, Cam was safe.

'Well folks, it looks like Kit has managed to take down Fleur's third and final pokémon!' The announcer called, and I nearly jumped as a cheer arose from the crowd. I looked around at the spectators and couldn't help but break into a smile. All these people had seen our win. This wasn't just a personal victory. All those people out there had gained respect for us. 'Despite a few mishaps with her pokémon, Kit has proven to be a worthy trainer, and she'll move on to the second round to test her skills further! We'll see what else she has in store for us later, but for now, we've got the next battle of the first round to look forward to, so don't go away!'

Fleur walked over to me to shake my hand, as was the custom after pokémon battles, but I could tell she was upset about her loss.

'You got lucky,' she muttered. 'You won't get through the next round with disobedient pokémon like that.'

'Oh yeah?' I challenged her. Hearing something like that only made me more determined to win.

'_Speaking of the next round, William's battle is next,_' said Taylor. '_Hurry up and get Elsie healed so we can be ready to watch it. He's gotta win so we can battle him in the next round._'

He was right. In the heat of the battle, I'd totally forgotten about William. As long as he made it through his first round battle, we'd be up against him in the next round. We had to really start getting serious. This wasn't just a battle, it wasn't just a tournament, it was a quest to save the vulpix prince.


	26. Chapter 25: Round Two, Sandstorm

I've been asked to explain the quote from the end of the prologue. Actually, I was asked about this back when I first released the story, but recently I've received more questions about it, so it's probably about time I explained it! It's a quote from a Japanese Pokémon song, "Atarashii Tomodachi" ("New Friend"). It's a short song from the single "Pikapika Massaichuu" (the Japanese ending theme to Pikachu's Vacation). If you listen to the song, you may recognise the tune; an instrumental version of it is sometimes used in the anime as background music. Anyway, as for the quote itself, it translates to "Beneath the sunset, we make a promise: we'll play together again tomorrow, won't we?". I'll leave it up to you to decide why I chose that quote. )

If you'd like to listen to the song, or read the rest of its lyrics, you can do so at the Pilot Light web site (click on my "homepage" on my profile).

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five – Round Two, Sandstorm**

After our battle with Fleur, we went to the temporary pokémon centre to have Taylor and Elsie healed. I had to be amazed at how advanced pokémon healing technology had become; it took no more than a few minutes for them both to be completely healed. It was a shock to see Elsie passed out one minute and completely healthy the next, but I had to get used to this kind of thing. After all, the more I battled, the more likely it was to happen to me someday.

Once the healing was finished, we went and sat with Mrs Taylor in the audience. She congratulated us on our battle, then we turned our attention to William's match, which had started a few minutes ago. I was shocked to see him using a vibrava. I hadn't expected him to use any pokémon other than the ones I knew he had. Then I belatedly remembered that Vibrava was the evolved form of Trapinch; they looked so different that it had slipped my mind. His trapinch must have evolved.

In his new form, Vibrava took down a shuckle and a slowpoke, then a treecko knocked Vibrava out, and William switched to his bellsprout to beat it. Like us, he'd managed to win the battle with just two pokémon. Was his third pokémon Connor? It suddenly dawned on me that maybe William wouldn't even have Connor with him. I knew the prince didn't like battling. What if William had decided to switch him for another pokémon? I remembered how proud he'd been about having a white vulpix, but what if . . . what if he'd even traded him away? This plan had seemed perfect before, but we'd left so much up to chance. We should have been more prepared.

But there was nothing we could do now other than go ahead with what we had planned. All we could do was wait until it was our turn to battle William, and then do what we could from there.

* * *

It was about an hour and a half later that our battle began. This was it. Our chance to save Connor. We had to do this right, then once this was over with, we could concentrate on winning that Rainbow Wing.

So I walked into the arena, determined. His vibrava could be tough; he'd been strong enough as a trapinch. But I was pretty sure we could handle his bellsprout. Like the bulbasaur from the previous round, bellsprouts were a dual-type of grass and poison. Both Taylor and Elsie had super-effective moves against them.

As the announcer opened the battle, I noticed William staring over at me and the pokémon beside me.

'Aren't you that girl we saw at the national park?' he asked. I couldn't help smiling at the memory of Katashi asking me if I'd seen his vulpix.

'Yeah,' I said. 'Did your friend ever find his vulpix?'

William sighed, then narrowed his eyes at me. 'Hey, that's none of your business!' He looked at Taylor, Elsie and Cam. 'It can't just be a coincidence that you've got a ninetales, espeon and kecleon . . . did you catch them at the vulpix pack in the Genesis Bushland?'

I laughed. 'Maybe. Does it really matter? We're meant to be having a battle here.'

'You're right. Battle first, ask questions later. Bellsprout, I choose you!'

He threw his pokéball and the small plant pokémon appeared. She swayed from side to side on the thin stem that was her body, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She looked so weak. Taylor or Elsie would knock her out easily.

'_This should be easy_,' said Taylor, stepping out on to the field. I ground my teeth. Was he going to do this every battle? Just go out into the battle without waiting for my orders?

'Ninetales, use Flamethrower!' I called.

'_Since I'm already faster than her and she doesn't look too strong, you may have actually made the right decision,_' said Taylor, then opened his mouth and breathed out a blast of flames. I smiled. It was about time he listened to me.

Bellsprout cried out as her small body was engulfed in flames, and when they cleared she was charred and shaky, but still standing.

'Bellsprout, Sleep Powder!' William called.

Bellsprout giggled in spite of her injuries. '_I love this move!_'

She shook her body rapidly, and a cloud of blue powder seeped out from the leaves that substituted for her arms. The powder wafted through the air towards Taylor, and he lowered his head, covering his nose with a paw. But within a few seconds he was coughing, and then his body swayed, his eyes drooped, and he fell to the ground.

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'You fell _asleep_!?'

'That's what Sleep Powder does,' smiled William.

Bellsprout laughed hysterically. '_He fell asleep! The big strong ninetales fell asleep!_'

If we were in any other situation, maybe I would have found Taylor falling to a little bellsprout just as funny as she did. But not when we were in this to save Connor and win the Rainbow Wing. No, now I was just angry.

'You stupid weakling!' I yelled. 'How can you let a little bellsprout beat you!? Wake up!'

'Bellsprout, Ingrain!'

I glanced over at Bellsprout to see her digging her roots into the ground. Whatever that was supposed to do, at least she wasn't attacking. I yelled at Taylor again, but still he made no response.

'Now, use Acid!'

Bellsprout opened her wide round mouth and spat out a strange purple goo. When it hit Taylor, it seeped through his fur and into his skin. I could see it draining his energy, but somehow it didn't wake him. Was he the heaviest sleeper in the world or what?

'_Kit_,' said Elsie. '_I'd better take over. The effect caused by moves like Sleep Powder is different to natural sleep. He'll sleep right through her attacks. It's better to get him out of there before she does too much damage, and before Ingrain can restore too much of her health._'

I paused, looking over at Bellsprout. She was looking noticeably more healthy than when I'd last looked at her. So that was what Ingrain did, it let her restore energy through her roots. Maybe Elsie was right. It was better to get that idiot out of there and send in a more reliable battler.

'OK,' I said. 'Ninetales, return.'

I then realised how difficult it was going to be to make Taylor return while he was asleep and I didn't have a pokéball. I ground my teeth and walked over to him, grabbed one of his tails and began dragging him back.

'_Kit!_' Elsie exclaimed. '_Don't you know that pulling a ninetales's tail can result in a ten-thousand-year curse?_'

'I think I'm already cursed enough,' I muttered. 'What's one more curse gonna change?' I dumped Taylor beside Elsie and took a deep breath. The moment he woke up, I'd make him pay for making me drag his heavy body around!

Elsie looked at Taylor uncertainly, then went and stepped into the arena.

'_Kit,_' she said. '_I know you like offensive moves, but I really think it would be best if I use Calm Mind. I sense that this bellsprout isn't very strong. I should be able to take one of her attacks and still knock her out. I need the stat boost to be able to defeat his vibrava._'

I paused, remembering the time she'd battled that pokémon before he'd evolved. One Faint Attack and one Crunch had been enough to knock her out. During my research I'd learnt that they were both super-effective attacks. Vibrava had the type advantage over her, but she had the type advantage over Bellsprout. Maybe using a stat-boosting move now _could_ help when William sent out Vibrava . . .

But it still seemed so pointless to me. Why waste a turn building yourself up when you could be attacking? I glanced down at Taylor, who was still fast asleep. He may have managed to get a good attack in, but he was now out of the battle due to Bellsprout's strategy. Offensive attacks were useless when you couldn't even use them.

Elsie was a much more experienced battler than me, and I didn't want to admit it, but maybe she was right. It wouldn't hurt to at least try, would it?

'Fine,' I said. 'Use Calm Mind.'

Elsie nodded, then closed her eyes and stood still, concentrating her energy.

'Bellsprout, Sleep Powder!' William called. His pokémon rustled her leaves and a puff of blue powder appeared. My expression dropped. After all that thought about how Calm Mind might be useful, Bellsprout was going to send Elsie to sleep! If only she'd attacked, she could have knocked Bellsprout out and be ready to fight Vibrava! But no, now she was going to be fast asleep with no chance of ever–

I opened my eyes wide as the Sleep Powder drifted off to the side, completely missing Elsie and settling in the dirt.

'It missed!?' I exclaimed.

Elsie nodded. '_Powder moves rely on the air to direct them to the opponent. But I can read the air currents, I knew that her attack would miss me._'

Read the air currents? I remembered reading something about espeons being able to do that. But she could have reminded me earlier! I'd been really worried there for a moment.

'Whatever,' I shrugged, not wanting to show her my distress. 'Use Psychic!'

Elsie stared at the bellsprout, until the little plant grabbed at her head with her leaves, moaning with pain. She stumbled back a few steps, then fell over.

'Kit has defeated William's first pokémon! But will she be able to take down the remaining two with her ninetales fast asleep? Let's find out!'

William recalled his bellsprout, then took out his next pokéball.

'You just got lucky,' he said. 'My next pokémon is really tough. There's no way you can beat it.'

'If you're so confident about it, why don't we make a bet?' I smiled. This was our chance.

'Bet?' William asked.

'Yeah. If you beat me, you can have one of my pokémon. But if I beat you, I can have one of yours.'

William paused. 'But if I beat you, that means your pokémon are weak, so why would I want them?'

'My ninetales is asleep,' I gestured to Taylor. 'If he was awake, he'd be really powerful. As long as you're not fighting someone with a sleep move, he'll win.'

As disturbing as it felt to be talking about how strong Taylor was, I just had to do it if I was going to convince this guy that this was a good idea. I had to be grateful that Taylor wasn't awake to hear me complimenting him!

'Hmm . . ..'

'What's the matter? Are you worried you can't win?'

William glared at me. 'No way! You've got yourself a bet!'

I smiled. 'Great.' I knew it was risky. With Taylor fast asleep, I had to rely on Elsie to beat Vibrava by herself. If she couldn't, we'd be in big trouble. I didn't want to send Cam out against that thing, so if Elsie lost . . . but it was OK. It wasn't like William would take away anyone important. If he won, he'd just take Taylor, and that'd only do me more good than harm!

'Vibrava, I choose you!' William tossed his pokéball and his bug-like dragon appeared. When the pokémon caught sight of Elsie, his big green eyes blinked.

'_It's that espeon from the vulpix pack!_' he exclaimed.

'_Yes,_' said Elsie.

'_How do you like my new form, huh? I beat you bad enough as a trapinch, imagine how much I'm gonna hurt you now that I've evolved!_' Elsie stayed silent, and Vibrava laughed. '_What's the matter, meowth got your tongue? I guess you're just embarrassed that an evolved pokémon like you couldn't even beat a trapinch. You obviously can't handle the power of being evolved, either that or evolution must be worthless in your species, ha ha!_'

I didn't think I could take much more of this taunting, and he wasn't even speaking to me. How could Elsie just stand there and put up with this? Why didn't she blast him with Psychic, show him how strong her evolution had really made her?

I was about to yell out to her to show that vibrava no mercy, but when I looked down at her, something stopped me from saying anything. Her eyes closed softly, she was standing with her head down, her ears slightly drooping, her tail between her legs. What was wrong with her? Why didn't she stand up for herself, fight back and tell them how wrong he was, instead of just standing there and taking his insults?

I could hardly believe that I felt sorry for her. When I saw people who let themselves get bullied around, it normally angered me, because I just couldn't see how it was anything but their own fault. They didn't _have_ to put up with it. They could fight back if they really wanted, and even if they were weaker, at least they'd have tried, not just given up and let themselves get taken advantage of.

But for some reason, I couldn't feel that way about Elsie. There was something about the calm yet hurt expression on her face that made me feel like there was something more to it.

'Vibrava, Sandstorm!'

My thoughts were cut short as William ordered his attack. I didn't have time to get caught up in contemplation; I had a battle to win! And no matter what Elsie's problem was, she couldn't afford to let it get in her way. She had to concentrate on this battle.

I watched as Vibrava beat his diamond-shaped wings, creating a gust of wind that blew the dirt from the ground up into the air. Within a few seconds, the arena was filled with a dust storm, and I had to hold my arm in front of my face to keep the sand out of my eyes. When I managed to get a better view of the field, I saw Elsie cringing as the dirt hit her body. Fortunately, though, it hardly seemed to do any damage. What a pathetic attack!

'Use Psychic!' I called, and Elsie did as I said, narrowing her eyes and concentrating her psychic energy. Vibrava was thrown back, but quickly got back on his feet. This pokémon was gonna be tough to take down, but I knew that Elsie wouldn't give up without a fight, especially when we were in this to save Connor.

'Vibrava, use Dig!' William commanded. His pokémon began shovelling at the ground with his feelers and little legs, and before long he'd disappeared underground.

'Psychic attack!' I called, and Elsie turned to me.

'_Kit, my attack can't hit him while he's underground,_' she said.

'What kind of psychic are you!?' I exclaimed. 'OK, maybe if you were using Flamethrower I'd understand, but why can't Psychic hit him while he's underground!?'

'_The soil blocks telekinetic powers,_' said Elsie calmly. '_Using Psychic now would only be a waste._'

I ground my teeth. How stupid was that! That annoying vibrava had stopped Elsie from attacking. What a cowardly technique, hiding under the ground like that! Now we were just gonna have to sit here and wait for him to reappear . . . but how could we just do that? Surely there had to be something we could do. OK, so attacking Vibrava wouldn't work, but . . .

'Fine them, use Calm Mind,' I said.

'_Good idea,_' nodded Elsie, and I smiled. She may not have been able to attack Vibrava, but that didn't mean she couldn't use other moves. Now with the stat boost from Calm Mind, her next Psychic would be even stronger! Maybe I was getting more of a hang of battling now.

But before I could gloat too much, Elsie gasped as the sandstorm wrapped itself around her, trapping her in the dust and sapping her energy. I bit my lip. No wonder that attack had seemed so weak; it was a multi-turn attack. As long as that sand was blowing around the field, Elsie would continue to be hit by it.

'OK Vibrava, come out!'

At his trainer's command, Vibrava burst out from the ground beneath Elsie, not only covering her with dirt but also knocking her back.

'Blast him with Psychic!' I called. Elsie quickly leapt back to her feet and focussed her energy on Vibrava. A purple glow surrounded the dragon, and he was lifted into the air, then thrown back to the other side of the arena.

The moment Elsie's attack ended, she was hit by the sandstorm again. This was so unfair! The damage she was receiving from the sand may have been a lot less than from other moves, but it was still like receiving two hits in one turn. If it stayed like this for much longer, not even the boost from two Calm Minds would be enough to knock out Vibrava before he knocked her out first. Elsie was losing too much power too quickly. We had to find a way out of this!

'_Isn't there a way to get rid of that sandstorm?_' Cam asked. '_It seems awfully unfair . . .._'

'_There are two ways to get rid of it,_' said Elsie, then took a deep breath, steadying herself. '_One is to use another climate-changing move, but I haven't learnt any. The other is to wait, and I'm afraid that's all we can do._'

'Vibrava, Faint Attack!'

I watched as Vibrava seemed to split himself up into multiple copies of himself, and they all charged at Elsie. Not knowing which one to dodge, Elsie was forced to take the attack as the copies faded and the real Vibrava slammed into her, pinning her to the ground. She winced as the super-effective attack drained her energy.

'Psychic attack!' I called. I could see that she was hurt, but she had to keep fighting. I was relying on Elsie to win this. Taylor was even more useless than normal at the moment, and I didn't want to risk sending Cam out against Vibrava. After seeing how badly he'd hurt Elsie as a trapinch, I couldn't even imagine what his new form would do to a weaker pokémon like Cam. Elsie just had to find a way to beat him.

Her psychic attack lifted Vibrava off her back and threw him over to his trainer. Although I could see that Vibrava was starting to weaken, Elsie's own weakness certainly wasn't getting any better. She tried to get to her feet, but then the sandstorm hit her and knocked her back down. This was looking bad. Much more of that and she'd be knocked out for good.

'_Kit, maybe I should go in . . ._' Cam ventured.

'_No way,_' I shook my head. '_Elsie can do this somehow._'

'_There is a move that can help me . . ._' Elsie said weakly. '_But it's almost useless while this sandstorm's blocking out the sun . . .._'

The sun? Was she trying to tell me that she knew Solar Beam? I'd never heard of an espeon using that, but that didn't mean it was impossible. Solar Beam was really powerful. Maybe it would be enough to knock Vibrava out. I grinned. All we had to do was wait for the sandstorm to clear, and we could win this!

'Faint Attack!'

Vibrava repeated his unavoidable attack, once again morphing into multiple copies of himself and attacking. Elsie cried out in pain. She couldn't take too much more of this. Even with her boosted special defence, those super-effective attacks were too much.

'_Kit, I should go in now . . ._' Cam looked up at me. '_I know Elsie's strong, but this is too much._'

'_No,_' Elsie forced herself to her feet, but her body was still shaking. '_Kit doesn't want you to get hurt. I just need to keep it up until the sandstorm subsides . . .._'

Vibrava laughed. '_You haven't got a chance! Even when my sandstorm stops hitting you, you'll never survive another attack!_'

'_I will,_' said Elsie. '_I will, for Connor, for Cam and for Kit._'

I swallowed. Although part of me was telling myself that she was just being dramatic, just acting, and that she didn't really mean that, the rest of me refused to believe it. I'd been hostile to Elsie in the past because she'd been friends with Taylor, but I didn't really have any reason to dislike her. She had strength and determination, and I had to admire that. She was smart and perceptive, and she was also benevolent and brave. She was forcing herself to keep battling a tough opponent, one she'd lost to before, all in order to save Connor, to protect Cam, and to respect my wishes as the trainer and decision-maker in this tournament.

It was strange, but I suddenly felt like Elsie was my friend. And the moment I felt that way, the thought of her having to keep battling this opponent seemed so selfish. Why should I put one friend in danger to protect another?

'Elsie, return!' I called. The espeon turned to me, and I expected her face to be full of shock, but instead it was quite calm and expressionless.

'_I knew it!_' Vibrava exclaimed. '_I knew you wouldn't be able to handle my evolved form! You've been evolved for way longer than me, and you can't even beat a newly-evolved pokémon! What a waste of your evolved power! You don't even know how to use it!_'

As Vibrava spoke, my eyes were on Elsie. The more he said, the more her ears and tail drooped. He was really getting to her. I wasn't going to let her stand for that. Maybe she thought it was OK to just stand there and take his insults, but I wouldn't allow it.

'Change of plans!' I called out. 'Elsie, you're staying in to knock that stuck-up vibrava out with Psychic!'

'_I'll do my best . . ._' Elsie said softly, turning to face Vibrava.

'You bet you will!' I yelled. 'And your best will be the best darn Psychic anyone's ever seen! Show that bug how strong you really are!'

Elsie unleashed her attack, sending Vibrava flying. When he crashed down on the ground in front of his trainer, he struggled to pull himself to his feet. Not quite knocked out, but definitely damaged a lot. Calm Mind was good enough in its own right, but what Elsie really needed to boost her power was some confidence.

I expected to see the sandstorm hit Elsie again, but instead what I saw was the swirling subsiding, and the dirt settling on the ground. The sandstorm was over.

'_I just need to survive his next attack,_' said Elsie, panting. '_Then I should be able to beat him._'

'All right,' I nodded. 'Just hang in there, Elsie.'

Elsie nodded, and I smiled. I was sure she could get through this attack, just as long as she was sure of it too.

'Vibrava, finish it off! Use Dragonbreath!'

'_Time to say goodbye,_' smiled Vibrava. He opened his mouth and puffed out a powdery beam that spread over Elsie's body. She cringed, and I could see her legs giving way, but she stood strong, holding herself up.

'What!?' William exclaimed. 'How could it survive that?'

'Easy, she's got something worth fighting for,' I said. 'Her friends.'

'Wh-what do you mean?'

'I wouldn't expect you to understand. Maybe if you teach that stuck-up vibrava some respect, you might start to get an idea.' I turned to Elsie. 'Come on, let's win this.'

Elsie nodded. '_My next move is called Morning Sun._'

'What? Not Solarbeam?' I couldn't remember what sort of move Morning Sun was, but it didn't sound very powerful. Was this really gonna be the move that could beat Vibrava? Why not just use Psychic? _That_ was a powerful move! If I knew a move like that, I'd use it to blast that vibrava right out the arena! That'd show him who--

I suddenly realised what I was doing. I was getting ahead of myself, thinking only about the most powerful moves, and worst of all, I wasn't listening to my friends. I had to stop being so hot-headed, I had to remind myself that Elsie _did_ know what she was doing. I could tell her to do something else and she'd listen to me, but then I'd be lowering her confidence. I may have been acting as the trainer, but a trainer wasn't only there to make decisions, she was there to encourage her pokémon and give them strength.

'OK,' I said. 'Elsie, use Morning Sun!'

Elsie closed her eyes and lifted her head up to the sun, and her body soaked in the golden rays. I watched as her body seemed to transform before my eyes, her ruffled fur smoothing out, her bruises healing, and her stance becoming firm and strong.

I remembered now what Morning Sun did. It absorbed energy from the sun to rejuvenate the body and recover battle wounds. Now while Vibrava stayed weakened, Elsie was strong again.

'What!?' William exclaimed. 'Oh no! This looks bad, Vibrava!'

I grinned. Of course it did. Now Vibrava was in trouble, and Elsie was ready to cause him even more trouble.

'Vibrava, you'd better use Faint Attack, and make it a good one!' William shouted.

'_Oh, I will,_' said Vibrava. '_I don't care if she's recovered some HP, I'll still knock her out!_'

With that, he launched into another Faint Attack, knocking Elsie down and draining her energy. I could see that the attack had been powerful, but with her health recovered, she'd handled it easily. Vibrava, on the other hand, was panting and shaking to keep his body stable. This battle had gone on for too long.

'Psychic attack!' I called.

For the final time, Elsie's eyes began to glow, and Vibrava was telekinetically lifted into the air and thrown away. He tried to get up, but his attempt lasted no more than a second, after which he collapsed, defeated.

'Wow folks, looks like Kit's espeon has managed to take down William's second pokémon!' the announcer called. 'Will it be able to handle his third pokémon too or will she need to switch in her kecleon or her sleeping ninetales?'

I'd been so caught up in trying to beat Vibrava that I'd almost forgotten that he was only William's second pokémon. We still had another one to beat, but that was OK, because if everything went according to plan, we knew who that pokémon was.

William was silent as he recalled Vibrava and took out his next pokéball. Then he looked over at me solemnly.

'I didn't want to have to do this,' he said. 'But I guess I've got no choice. I'll have to use my secret weapon.'

He tossed his pokéball into the arena. The flash of light that appeared seemed to take forever to disperse, and when it finally did, I found myself looking at a small white pokémon with six tails.

Connor looked around frantically for a moment, and when he spotted Elsie, his pink eyes opened wide.

The announcer said something about what a rare and amazing pokémon William had just used, but I wasn't listening. This was it. Connor was here. We were really gonna get him back.

'_Prince Connor,_' said Elsie softly. '_Do you remember me? I'm Elsie._'

'_Yes,_' Connor nodded. '_I remember you clearly, as well as Cam and Taylor over there . . . but what are you doing here? Or more importantly, where _is_ here? Where has that human brought me?_'

'_We're here to take you back,_' said Elsie. '_This is a battle, so we can't waste time talking or they'll get suspicious. This may sound strange, but we need you to pretend to faint. Kit made a deal with that human. If we win the battle, we can take you back._'

'_Kit?_' Connor asked, and looked over at me. '_I see. So that's Kit's human form?_'

'_That's right,_' nodded Elsie. '_She's acting as a trainer, so quick, I'm going to pretend to use a psychic attack, and you need to pretend to faint. Just trust me._'

'_If that's what needs to be done._' Connor nodded.

'OK,' I said. 'Elsie, use Psychic!'

Elsie's eyes glowed softly, and she nodded to Connor. The white vulpix lay down on his side and closed his eyes, in what was possibly the worst display of acting I'd ever seen. How was anyone going to fall for that? It was so obvious that he'd done it on purpose!

'Uh . . . Vulpix?' William asked uncertainly.

'Some secret weapon!' I called. Maybe some acting of my own could help us out. 'He faints after one Psychic attack? That's pretty pathetic!'

'Well folks . . .' The announcer didn't sound too certain either. 'It looks like William's vulpix has given up! Just to be sure that this can be counted as a defeat, we'll give it thirty seconds to get up! If it stays down, Kit will be declared the winner.'

'Vulpix!' William called desperately. 'Vulpix, c'mon, you can't do this to me! Get up, please!'

'_Connor,_' said Elsie calmly. '_Whatever you do, don't move._'

William continued to shout pleas at the vulpix, but Connor stayed down. It felt like the longest thirty seconds of my life, but finally the time was up.

'That's it, folks! William's vulpix is officially out of the battle! The victory goes to Kit Tanguy!'

There was a cheer from the crowd, but it was much less enthusiastic than it had been in my first battle, and it was no wonder; that hadn't exactly been a spectacular finish. But that didn't matter. What was important was that we'd beaten William, and now we could get Connor back.

* * *

After we'd left the battlefield, I ran up to William and tapped him on the back.

'Don't think you're getting away that easily,' I said. 'A deal's a deal. I'll be taking your vulpix now.'

'My vulpix!?' William exclaimed. 'You can't take my white vulpix! What about my bellsprout? Its Sleep Powder is really useful!' I folded my arms, unimpressed, and William sighed. 'Well, OK. You can take my vibrava.'

I narrowed my eyes. What kind of trainer _was_ this guy? He was ready to give away the pokémon he'd been training for a long time to keep one he'd only just caught, just because it was an unusual colour? His pokémon were so willing to obey his every command and battle for him, and what did he give them in return? Appreciation? Respect? Friendship? He didn't care about them at all, no, to him they were just possessions, and ones too common to be worth keeping. So much for the trainers' ideals of forming bonds with pokémon.

'It I could, I'd take all three of them, to free them from a selfish trainer like you who doesn't care about them,' I said. 'But that wasn't our deal. I'm taking the vulpix, because unlike you, I actually understand what he's going through.'

'Whatever, I'm not gonna listen to your insults!' William unclipped a pokéball from his belt and shoved it at me. 'Just take it. It's brought me nothing but bad luck anyway! So much for black meowths, it's white vulpixes that _really_ bring bad luck!'

I took the pokéball from him. 'So you blame your own inability to understand your pokémon on luck? Worse still, you blame luck on a pokémon? Wake up to yourself. You don't know what it means to be a trainer.'

'I said I don't have time for your insults! Don't you have a third round battle to get ready for!?'

He spun around and stormed off, leaving me with that bitter remark. Though he'd said it in spite, he was right. We'd only completed half of what we were here to do. Connor may have been safe, but we still had that Rainbow Wing to win.


	27. Chapter 26: Round Three, DoubleEdge

Merry Christmas! Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday, and enjoy the new chapter. I made a special PL Christmas picture for you all, which you can find on the web site (go to my profile and click on my home page). I seem to be advertising that site too much these days. Oh well, I hope you enjoy it! See you in the new year.**  
**

**Chapter Twenty-Six – Round Three, Double-Edge**

As I waited for Taylor and Elsie to be healed of their battle injuries, I released Connor from his prison inside William's pokéball. He was certainly glad to be out of there, and kept telling Cam and I how grateful he was to us for rescuing him. It was a little difficult for me to communicate with him because he didn't fully understand human speech (though he'd learnt a bit from being with William and Katashi during the past few weeks), but with Cam's help as a translator, we managed to have a bit of a conversation. Before long, though, Elsie and Taylor were healed, and I quickly turned my attention to Taylor, telling him how hopeless he was for letting a bellsprout beat him, and how Elsie was a much more reliable battler. He tried to act tough about it, but it was obvious that he was embarrassed. He kept trying to change the topic, first to how good it was that Connor was back, and then to how we really should be concentrating on the rest of the tournament. And I had to admit, he was right about that; I could waste more time enjoying making fun of him, but in the end, I really had to get serious. We'd gotten through the first two rounds, so our opponents would be getting tougher from here on. If we were going to win that Rainbow Wing, we had to stay focussed on the battles.

Mrs Taylor came down to meet us, and we explained to Connor that she was a friend and he could trust her. Once he understood that, he went with her into the audience and left the rest of us to get ready for our third round battle. Our opponent was someone named Nasim, but of course we knew nothing more than that about him. That was OK, though. I'd figure out what to do as it happened. Taylor would most likely charge in first like he had in the last two battles, but maybe that was the best thing to do anyway. Now that I'd seen how well Elsie could battle, I considered her our greatest asset, and it was always a good strategy to save the best until last.

* * *

'And here we are in another third round match here at the Rainbow Tournament, where the action is starting to get really intense! We're about to witness a battle between Kit from Spectrum City and Nasim from Copper Town! As you may know by now, Kit is a newcomer to the pokémon tournament scene and has impressed us all by getting through her first two battles using only two pokémon, while Nasim has ranked high in previous tournaments and earned a good reputation for himself. Will the newcomer be able to defeat this old favourite? We'll find out soon! Let the battle begin!'

My opponent, Nasim, was a thin young man with blonde hair and a calm smile on his face. He didn't look very tough, but his expression told me that he must have had some tricks up his sleeve; he certainly didn't look nervous about this. I had to keep my wits about me if we were going to win this.

'I choose Flareon!' Nasim threw a pokéball and a fluffy red and yellow dog-like pokémon appeared. Her long ears and almond-shaped eyes reminded me of Elsie, and I smiled. How cool would it be to see a battle between an espeon and a flareon! I'd always wanted to see some battles between the different Eevee evolutions, to see which one was truly stronger.

'Elsie,' I said, looking down at her. 'Come on, you're up!'

'_I . . ._' Elsie stammered, glancing over at the flareon.

'_No,_' said Taylor. '_I'll battle her._'

'_Are you sure?_' Elsie asked.

'It doesn't matter if he's sure, I'm the trainer! I said I want Elsie to battle!'

'_And I said _I'm _battling!_' Taylor growled, then marched off into the arena. I ground my teeth. This flareon had better have a move that'll send him to sleep again. I can't take much more of his stuck-up attitude. Elsie's clearly the better choice in this battle; everyone knows you don't fight fire with fire. Well, at least he looked faster than that flareon, so he wasn't going to waste a turn using Agility. Maybe he could beat it if he just used all his strength.

'Use Flamethrower!' I called.

'_Are you _that_ stupid?_' Taylor shook his head. '_You expect me to use Flamethrower on a flareon?_'

'Yes, genius,' I said, folding my arms. 'I _know_ fire's not very powerful against other fire-types, but since you had to be the hero and go in instead of Elsie–'

'_It's not because she's a fire-type, you moron. It's because her ability is Flash Fire. All that fire moves do against a flareon is make its own fire more powerful!_'

'Then why are _you_ the one out there battling!? Get back here and let Elsie fight her!'

'_I'm out here because battles are more than just type advantages and statistics, but I don't expect you to understand that. Just shut up and let me battle. Maybe someday you'll see why I'm the best choice here._'

'Will you stop acting so stuck-up like you're the only one who understands battling!? Me and Elsie won that last battle without you 'cause you were so stupid you let a little bellsprout–'

'_You don't understand the first thing about battling! I just told you! It's not about who's stronger or anything stupid like that! It's more than just a fight!_'

'_Kit . . ._' Cam tugged at my pants to get my attention, and although I wanted to yell back at Taylor, I forced myself to look down at the kecleon. '_Please don't argue. If Taylor doesn't hurry up and move, that flareon will get the advantage._'

I sighed heavily and turned my attention back to the battle. As usual, Cam was right. The more we argued, the more likely we were to lose this. No matter what Taylor was going on about out there, I knew I wouldn't be able to convince him to come back. I had to just try to make the most of the situation and get him to battle as well as he could. And if he got knocked out, all the better. Then I could send Elsie out and we'd win this battle without a problem.

'Fine,' I muttered. 'What non-fire attacks do you know?'

'_I'll use Quick Attack._'

'Whatever. Just go ahead and do it then.'

Taylor lowered his head and then seemed to disappear in a flash of white as he leapt at Flareon with lightning speed. As I watched the attack, I was filled with a haunting feeling. I'd seen him use that move before, but I couldn't think of it as really being Taylor who'd used it. When he'd used it, he'd been "Russell", the ninetales who'd appeared out of nowhere and saved me from Team Magma. The ninetales who I'd really liked, who I'd been so happy to meet. It was so unfair that that ninetales was Taylor. It was so unfair that the ninetales who I was sure I could remember as being my best friend when I was a young vulpix, was also Taylor. Why did he have to be so cold, and yet, when he wanted to show it, so friendly?

'Flareon, use Attract!'

Caught up in my thoughts, I wasn't paying much attention as I saw the flareon pull herself up from the attack, and then coyly lower her head and beat her eyelashes at Taylor, murmuring soft words to him. I hadn't fully registered what was going on until he took a few steps back nervously.

'_I . . . uh, I . . ._' He swallowed, and I could see his face going red beneath his fur. I blinked, unable to believe what I was seeing, and then I just couldn't hold it in, and burst into hysterical laughter.

'Check it out Elsie!' I gasped between laughs. 'Your boyfriend's cheating on you!'

Elsie lowered her head and turned away from me, which only made me laugh harder. Although part of me was scolding myself, telling myself that I had to get serious and concentrate on this battle, this was just _too_ hilarious for me to ignore. Taylor had totally fallen under that flareon's attraction spell! Taylor, who I couldn't help but think of as a human who happened to be in a pokémon's body, had become totally infatuated with a flareon! And for it to happen in front of Elsie, the one who Mrs Taylor teasingly called his girlfriend, who also happened to be an alternate evolution to a flareon . . . this was just too much! I'd be able to tease Taylor about this for the rest of my life, and it would never lose its humour!

'Uhh, well it looks like Kit for some reason finds it funny that her ninetales has been hit by Attract . . .' The announcer seemed baffled at my reaction. 'Will she regain her composure and fight back, or will this loss of focus be her downfall?'

Yeah right. I grinned. If anything, watching that move's effect had only made me more determined to win this. Now I was in good spirits, and ready to fight back with confidence and excitement.

'OK Taylor, use Quick Attack!' I called.

'_I . . ._' Taylor stammered. '_I . . . I can't . . .._'

'What!?' I exclaimed, the smile suddenly fading from my face. 'What do you mean you can't!?'

'_Why would he attack someone he loves?_' Elsie asked quietly, and I looked down to see her still looking away, her tail and ears drooping.

'Loves?' I rolled my eyes. 'Oh come on. That's called infatuation, not love.' I looked back at Taylor. Elsie had a point, though. Even though he was only infatuated, he still _thought_ he was in love with that flareon, and of course that meant he wasn't going to attack her. This wasn't funny anymore. This was almost as bad as it had been when that bellsprout had put him to sleep. If he didn't snap out of this, it could cost him the battle.

'Flareon, use Double Team!'

'_OK!_' Flareon nodded, then I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things as multiple copies of her seemed to appear from either side of her, until Taylor was surrounded by a circle of flareons. I was reminded of Vibrava's Faint Attack, but this was clearly different. Although Faint Attack created multiple copies to ensure that his attack couldn't be dodged, Double Team was creating copies to avoid Taylor's attacks.

Taylor spun around groggily, looking at all the flareons with wide eyes. Oh great. Now he wasn't attracted to just one flareon, but a whole circle of them! How on Earth were we going to make him snap out of this one?

'Use Quick Attack you idiot!' I yelled. Taylor took a deep breath, shook his head, and launched his attack at one of the flareons on the circle . . . but all he did was run straight through it, coming out on the other side of the circle with the real flareon completely unharmed. This was so unfair! Because that idiot had been stupid enough to fall for that flareon's flirting, it was nearly impossible for him to attack her!

'Now Flareon, use Double-Edge!' Nasim called. Suddenly one of the flareon copies leapt out from the circle and slammed into Taylor, knocking him down with an attack so harsh that Flareon herself was knocked back in recoil. But before I could tell Taylor to hit back with a Quick Attack, Flareon had returned to the Double Team circle and was lost amidst the copies.

'How's an idiot like him supposed to beat that!?' I exclaimed. 'He's too delusional to attack and then when he does she just dodges him!'

'_Double-Edge may actually be an advantage to us,_' said Elsie softly. '_When she uses it, it causes damage to herself as well as him. But I . . . I should be the one out there battling. I'm sorry I didn't go out when you told me to, Kit . . .._'

'Yeah, well it's a bit late for sorries now.' I shook my head, turning back to Taylor. 'Use Quick Attack, and make sure it hits!'

'_I . . . I can't attack her . . ._'

'Just shut up and get over it! Can't you see she's our enemy!? More importantly, can't you see she's just manipulating you!? Did you honestly think that eyelash-batting was serious? Oh please! I can't believe you fell for that, I mean, who in their right mind would honestly flirt with you anyway? It's so obvious it was just a trick to get you to act like this! So just snap out of it and attack her!'

'It's no use,' Nasim smiled. 'No one can fight the charm of a cute pokémon like Flareon.' I glared at him. 'Now Flareon, Double-Edge!'

Once again, the real Flareon leapt out of the circle of copies and knocked Taylor down. He cried out in pain as the damage took its toll, but I could see the pain on Flareon's face too as she stumbled back with the impact of the move. Why was she using a move that caused damage to herself? With her strategy of Attract and Double Team she was practically unhittable, so she was causing her own downfall by hurting herself? So much for Nasim's good tournament reputation. As long as Taylor just stayed in battle, he could outlast her, couldn't he?

Maybe not. As well as his stupid infatuation crippling him, his body was showing serious signs of weakness. That attack may have been doing damage to Flareon, but not as much as it was doing to Taylor. I had to snap him out of this and get him back into serious battling. I couldn't rely on Flareon to knock herself out.

'You idiot, Taylor! Can you honestly still be attracted to her after she's just been attacking you!? Who cares what she looks like or whatever it is that's making you so infatuated! Everyone knows espeons are the best of the eevee evolutions! Isn't that right, Elsie?'

I turned to her for support, but she was silent, her head still down, her tail still between her legs. Jeez. Was she really that upset about Taylor becoming attracted to someone else? She really had to find herself a new love interest. Why she'd ever want to be with someone like Taylor in the first place I had no idea.

I heard Flareon cry out, and looked up quickly to see that Taylor had knocked her down. I grinned. Had I really gotten through to him, or had it just been a coincidence that he'd been able to ignore his infatuation and hit the right one? Either way, at least he'd done some damage. Quick Attack wasn't as powerful as Double-Edge, but coupled with the recoil damage Flareon had been receiving, she was steadily weakening.

'Flareon, Double-Edge!'

Flareon jumped up from Taylor's attack and knocked him back, crushing him to the ground with all her strength. Then she stumbled back, panting. This move was really taking it out of her, but then, it was hurting Taylor a lot too. I wasn't sure if he could handle another hit from it. But maybe it would be better if she knocked him out anyway. Then at least he'd be out of his stupid infatuation and I'd be able to send Elsie in to finish her off.

'Taylor, Quick Attack!' I called. Taylor shut his eyes, forced himself to his feet, and took a deep breath. Hang on, he was going to attack with his eyes shut? OK, sure, maybe if he couldn't see Flareon his attraction to her wouldn't stop him from attacking, but how was he supposed to hit her if he couldn't see her?

I watched as he shot through the air in a flash of white, knocking Flareon down. How he'd managed to do that, I had no idea, but now wasn't the time to ask questions. By the look on her face, Flareon hadn't taken that attack too well. She stumbled back from Taylor, then fell to the ground, panting. She hadn't yet fainted, but it was clear that she wouldn't be able to keep on battling much longer.

'Flareon return!' Nasim called, and his pokémon faded into red light, returning to her pokéball.

'Nasim has chosen to recall his injured flareon before Kit's ninetales could knock it out, or perhaps before its Double-Edge would make it knock itself out!' The announcer called. 'What pokémon will Nasim send out to replace it?'

'Heracross, I choose you!' Nasim threw his next pokéball into the arena. The pokémon that appeared was a big blue beetle with a huge horn on his forehead. I grinned. A bug-type? Against Taylor? Now that his Flamethrower wasn't useless anymore, this would be an easy win!

'Flamethrower!' I called. Taylor shook his head and got to his feet.

'_Elsie, I'm sorry about the way I was acting,_' he said quietly.

'Oh get over it,' I rolled my eyes. 'Just hurry up and attack! Flamethrower!'

'_Stop ordering me around. I'm only doing this 'cause I think it's the best move too, not 'cause you told me to use it._'

He opened his mouth and let out a beam of fire, which quickly wrapped itself around Heracross, charring the bug's body. But Heracross just shook his head and stayed standing firm, ready to keep fighting.

'Heracross, Earthquake!'

Earthquake? A bug pokémon could use Earthquake!? Although I hadn't encountered it personally, I'd read about this attack and how popular it was because of its devastating power. If you added in the fact that Taylor was weak to ground-type moves, this was a seriously scary attack.

Heracross jumped into the air and spun around, diving face-down and slamming his horn into the ground. I opened my eyes wide as the ground split beneath his horn, a crack running from the place he'd hit right over to Taylor, where the ground crumbled to pieces and the ninetales fell into the hole with a cry. I swallowed. How could a bug have that much power in his horn? There was no way Taylor could have survived that, was there?

I heard movement, and looked to see Taylor's weak body crawling out of the hole, puffing heavily. He struggled to stay on his feet as he forced his jaws open and spat out a ball of fire. What was that supposed to be? An Ember attack? Couldn't he even handle Flamethrower anymore?

'_Is that supposed to hurt me?_' Heracross asked. '_What a weak little ninetales you are. And just when I thought I was gonna have some good competition in this tournament, too._'

'Heracross, Brick Break!' Nasim called.

'_Good idea, I'll save the rest of my Earthquakes for that espeon,_' said Heracross, and began advancing on Taylor.

'_You won't beat her,_' puffed Taylor. '_Espeons are a lot stronger than they look._'

'_Maybe, but it's a shame I can't say the same about you. Let's get this over with._' Heracross grabbed Taylor with his muscular forearms, and the ninetales was just too weak to even try to resist. Holding Taylor in place, Heracross then lifted his head and slammed it down, using his horn to strike Taylor in the leg. Taylor let out a blood-curdling scream that made my whole body feel cold with fear, but then it was over, and Taylor lay passed out on the ground. I gulped.

'Heracross has taken out Kit's ninetales! Let's see if Kit chooses to fight back with her espeon that swept William's team, or shows us the power of her yet unused kecleon!'

I shook my head to get my senses back, then walked out onto the field to bring Taylor back. As I dragged his fainted body back to the others, I noticed that the leg that Heracross had hit with his Brick Break was looking disjointed. I'd have to ask the nurse to take a special look at it before our next battle.

'_Taylor!_' Elsie rubbed her head against the fur around Taylor's neck. '_Taylor, please be all right!_'

'He'll be fine once we get him to the Pokémon Centre. Now we need you to get out there and teach that Heracross a lesson!'

'_I . . . I'll try . . ._' Elsie lingered for a moment, looking at Taylor, then turned and headed out onto the battlefield.

'_Are you sure he'll be all right?_' Cam asked, looking at Taylor uncertainly.

'Of course he will. You've seen what those Pokémon Centres can do.' I had to reassure Cam and Elsie so that they'd stay confident, but deep down I was uncertain about Taylor's condition too. The way he'd screamed like that . . . I'd heard pokémon cry out in battles before, but nothing like that. That Brick Break had done some serious damage.

'_Kit, I have the type advantage here,_' said Elsie. '_Heracrosses are part fighting-type as well as bug. Psychic attacks are super-effective against them._'

I nodded. It was no wonder that Brick Break had been so effective. When pokémon used moves that were the same type as themselves, they were more powerful than using moves of other types. Since Brick Break was a fighting-type move, Heracross had done boosted damage with it. But since fighting moves didn't do much damage to psychic types, we didn't have to worry about Brick Break with Elsie. Hopefully her Psychic would be powerful enough to beat him. But maybe it was best to give it a bit of a boost just in case.

'Elsie, use Calm Mind!'

Elsie nodded, and closed her eyes, concentrating her psychic energy. Hopefully the move would not only increase her stats, but help her to stop worrying about Taylor and concentrate on the battle.

'Heracross, Megahorn!'

Heracross lowered his head and charged at Elsie, and when he reached her he scooped her up with his horn, then threw his head back and launched her into the air. I had to look away as she came crashing down to the ground, slamming onto the arena floor with a thump that made me cringe.

'_So sure you've got the type advantage now?_' Heracross grinned.

Elsie pulled herself to her feet, puffing. '_Kit, I'm sorry . . . bug-type moves aren't very common so it just slipped my mind that he might have one . . .._'

'Slipped your mind!? You're fighting a pokémon whose type is super-effective against you and you just forgot!?' I shook my head at her, but I knew that I shouldn't have been taking my anger out on her. I was the one who was supposed to be the trainer here. It was the trainer's job to think about things like type advantages and possible moves the opponent might know. I sighed. 'Just use Psychic, hopefully you can do some damage with that.'

'_I'm sorry Kit. I'll try my best._' Elsie opened her eyes wide and they began to glow. Heracross clutched at his head as a purple aura surrounded his body and lifted him into the air, then threw him back. He crashed onto the ground, but after only a few seconds he pulled himself to his feet. He'd taken a lot of damage, but this Heracross wasn't giving up.

'Heracross, Megahorn!'

Heracross repeated his attack, throwing Elsie into the air with his horn. I immediately ordered another Psychic, and Elsie fought back with her own attack. The rally went on for a few more turns, the two pokémon exchanging powerful and super-effective blows. Eventually they were both exhausted, panting hard as they struggled to keep their weakened bodies stable. This was looking bad. If Elsie lost to Heracross, what was I going to do? With Taylor knocked out, the only pokémon left was Cam. Not only was he not as powerful as Taylor and Elsie, but as a normal-type, Heracross could use Brick Break to knock him out cold. Elsie had to find a way to win this, she had to!

Wait a second. Elsie had been on the verge of defeat in the last battle, but she'd pulled through because she'd taken a moment to stop attacking and use Morning Sun to restore her health. That was it! All she had to do was use Morning Sun now and she'd be healthy enough to take Heracross down!

'Elsie, Morni–'

'Heracross return!'

I blinked. Nasim was recalling his pokémon? I was so used to trainers keeping their pokémon in the battle until they lost that I'd almost forgotten that switching pokémon was an option. Then I remembered that he'd done the same thing with his flareon. We hadn't even beaten one of his pokémon yet, and here we were with Taylor defeated and Elsie almost knocked out too. But we couldn't lose this battle. We'd find some way to get through it. We had to.

'I choose Linoone!'

I watched as the long, striped, furry pokémon emerged from her pokéball. A linoone? They weren't native to Aruto, so Nasim must have been a pretty well-travelled trainer. Either that, or he'd traded with a well-travelled trainer. Either way, I was beginning to see that this guy was no pushover. His flareon was strategic, his heracross was powerful . . . who knew what his linoone would be like?

'Linoone, Extremespeed!'

Before I could tell Elsie to hurry up and use Morning Sun to restore her energy, Linoone shot into action. One moment she was standing calmly in front of her trainer, the next she was suddenly over near Elsie and had knocked her to the ground. Taylor's Quick Attack had been the fastest move I'd ever seen, but this linoone's Extremespeed was so fast I couldn't even see it.

'_I'm sorry, Kit . . . Cam . . ._' Elsie breathed, and then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed, fainted. I went cold. Elsie had fainted. Elsie, my last chance to win, had fainted. Why hadn't she been faster? Why hadn't she known I was telling her to use Morning Sun when I'd started to say the name? Why hadn't she used it in time? Why had she let Linoone get the better of her? Why had she let me down like this? She'd known I was relying on her. She'd known she was our only chance with Taylor knocked out. Shouldn't that have been enough to make her win this? Now it was over. It was all over. Our chances to win this battle, our chances to get our hands on that Rainbow Wing, our chances to maybe do something, anything to help Ho-Oh . . . all of it was over.

'And Kit's espeon is down!' The announcer called. 'Well this is it, folks! It looks like we're finally going to witness the battling debut of Kit's kecleon! Has she been keeping it from battling because it's not as strong as her other pokémon, or is it a secret weapon she's been waiting for a dire moment to unleash? Let's find out!'

I swallowed as I looked down at the small green figure beside me. How could I say it was over when I still had Cam? I knew that he wasn't a battler, I knew that Taylor and Elsie were much stronger, and I knew that I was scared of his Colour Change ability activating. But what kind of friend would give up on someone just because of those things? Wasn't having confidence in him the thing a true friend would do?

I breathed out a low sigh as I walked onto the battlefield to pick up Elsie and take her back. As I lay her down beside Taylor, I turned to Cam.

'_I guess it's all up to me,_' he said softly.

Was having confidence in him the right thing to do? Or was protecting him the right thing to do? There was no point having confidence if he truly didn't have the potential . . . but there was no point giving up if he did have the potential and I just wasn't giving him credit. Which was it? Did Cam truly have the power to beat that linoone? Was sending him out there worth the risk?

'_Taylor and Elsie have been fighting so hard to protect me . . ._' Cam looked up at me, his beady eyes wide almost as if he were pleading with me. '_I think it's only fair for me to at least try to win this for them, after all they've done for me._'

I swallowed, and forced myself to nod. 'All right. Go out there and win this, Cam.'

Cam smiled softly, then turned and headed out onto the battlefield. I took a deep breath. Whether it was right to send him out or keep him here, wasn't it even more right to let him make his own decisions? I wasn't really his trainer, I was his friend. And whatever he chose to do, I'd stand by it.

'Linoone, Extremespeed!'

Cam was suddenly knocked down as Linoone appeared before him. He cringed and took the hit, and when Linoone backed off, he got to his feet. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Everything was OK. Linoone was a normal-type pokémon, so as long as she didn't have any moves of other types, Cam's Colour Change ability wouldn't activate. Images of Cam's red scales and his vicious attacks on Leon entered my mind, but I forced them away. I had to stay calm. That wouldn't happen again. It wouldn't!

'Cam, use Scratch!'

Cam nodded, then rushed over to Linoone and swiped his little yellow claws down the pokémon's face. With the thick fur that covered Linoone's body, it didn't look like Cam's attack had even scraped her skin. A smile curved across Linoone's face, and then a laugh arose from the audience.

'Well folks, unfortunately for Kit it looks like my first theory may be right! Her kecleon's attack appears to have done barely any damage at all to Nasim's linoone! It looks like Kit may be out of chances now!'

My head felt hot, and my breathing was becoming heavy. How could the audience be laughing? How could they think that Cam's poor attack was funny? Didn't they understand that that was what made Cam the great person he was? The fact that he didn't like to battle, that instead he was friendly and understanding, solving disputes with better means than his claws. What was wrong with these people? Just because someone wasn't a good battler, that made it OK to laugh at them? Was this what pokémon battles did to people? Made them obsessed with strength, made them forget that the best virtues someone could have weren't the physical ones?

'Don't you dare laugh at Cam!' I turned to the audience and shouted my anger at them. In the uncertain silence that followed, I looked back at where the kecleon was standing in the middle of the field, looking around at the audience with his eyes wide and his big mouth open in a frown.

'I know it's not nice to watch your pokémon get insulted,' said a voice, and I looked to the other side of the arena to see that Nasim was speaking to me. 'But it's worse to see them defeated in battle. One of the most important things a trainer can learn is to know when their pokémon isn't ready for the opponent.'

I put my hands on my hips. 'Well if you think Cam's not ready for your linoone, you're wrong.'

Nasim sighed. 'I'll keep battling if that's what you want, but I don't want you to regret it when you have to watch it faint. All right Linoone, let's try Thunderbolt.'

Thunderbolt?

So his linoone didn't only know normal-type moves. What would a move like Thunderbolt do to Cam? What if Nasim was right? What if it really was better for me to give up? I'd been haunted by images of Cam's Colour Change ever since I'd first seen it. Did I really want to add even more images of it to my memory?

As sparks began flying from Linoone's fur, I found my mind plagued with questions. Was staying in this battle really the right thing to do? We needed that Rainbow Wing to help Ho-Oh, but why was I valuing a legendary pokémon over a friend?

A ball of electricity flew from Linoone's fur, and slammed into Cam's body. The kecleon fell onto his back as electric waves bounced around his body. As they did so, I could see the green of his scales fading, sinking away, until instead of the green lizard I was so familiar with, I now saw a yellow one.

I hesitated. My memories of Cam's first Colour Change had been so strong that I'd been sure that any non-normal-type attack would turn his scales red again. But of course that didn't make any sense. The reason they'd turned red was because he'd been hit by a fire-type attack, but this was an electric-type attack. And maybe . . . maybe that meant that the personality change that had accompanied his Colour Change would be different too . . ..

As Cam got to his feet, he didn't turn into a vicious monster intent on revenge. Instead, a huge grin spread across his face.

'_What a funny attack!_' He said, then spluttered into laughter. I blinked. What in the world was so funny about Thunderbolt, let alone being hit by it? '_You should've seen how the electricity was coming out of your fur, aha ha ha ha!_'

'Um, Cam . . .' I ventured. 'Are you OK?'

'_OK?_' Cam giggled. '_Do I look OK? Of course I'm OK! So what attack should I use, Kit? It better be a good one! I hope it's a good one! Will it be a good one, Kit?_'

'I . . .' I swallowed. 'I guess so . . . um . . . what other attacks do you know?'

Cam paused, then laughed. '_That's a good question, Kit! Come to think of it, I don't think I know any attacks other than Scratch! How funny is that? I'm supposed to beat that big linoone with Scratch! That'd be so funny if I did that!_'

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'You don't know _any_ other attacks?' I thought back to the kecleon I'd been using on the simulator at school. 'What about Psybeam?'

'_Psybeam? Are you kidding me, Kit? Man, you crack me up! That attack's way too advanced for me to use! You seriously thought I'd be able to use an attack like that? What were you thinking, Kit? I'll be older than Eustacia by the time I can use that attack, ha ha ha!_'

I sighed. I'd been worried about Cam turning into a monster like he had last time, but this was even worse. At least then he'd been eager to battle. The way he was now, he was finding the fact that he was weaker than Linoone _funny_!? How was he ever going to win with an attitude like that?

'Hey Cam, do you remember that time you were hit by Leon's fire, and you started battling him acting all tough and powerful? Why don't you try doing that again?'

'_That's a good one, Kit! Me, tough and powerful? Ha ha ha! Like I could do that! When I fought that charmeleon I was just– wait a sec! I just remembered! I used this other attack when I was fighting him! It's called Fury Swipes! Hey, maybe I could use that! Do you think that'd be a good idea, Kit? Using Fury Swipes? Would that be a good move to use?_'

'It could be, why don't you give it a go? Use Fury Swipes!'

'_OK, here we go! Watch out Linoone, time to prepare for the mighty Cam the kecleon's super-powerful Fury Swipes attack! Gooooo!_'

I shook my head in dismay as Cam ran at Linoone with his claws outstretched. This had better work. If Cam stayed hyperactive like this for much longer, Linoone would get the better of him for sure. He had to put all his energy into his attacks and beat her, then we could heal him at the Pokémon Centre and hopefully he'd return to normal.

Cam began slashing at Linoone with his claws, swiping at her face. As she tried to dodge the attack, Cam only laughed and chased after her, swiping faster and faster with his little claws. Although only a few of his swipes seemed to get through her fur to her skin, his attack just kept going. The more Linoone tried to back away, the more Cam giggled and kept attacking, refusing to stop his scratching.

'Would you look at this, folks? Most pokémon can only keep Fury Swipes up for a maximum of five hits before the opponent manages to escape, but Kit's kecleon just keeps on swiping! Could this be the end of Nasim's linoone?'

The announcer was right. Linoone was trying her best to dodge the attacks, but it was useless; Cam just kept on scratching. Although each scratch was doing only tiny amounts of damage, the fact that he wouldn't stop swiping meant that he was going to have done serious damage by the time Linoone managed to get away.

And it felt like it must have been several minutes later that Cam's attack finally did stop, but not because Linoone had dodged it. Instead, the attack had caused her too much damage, and she couldn't keep defending it. As she fell at Cam's feet, the kecleon kept swiping her for a few moments before realising she'd fainted.

'_Oh?_' He asked, tilting his head. '_You passed out? That's no fun! Come on, wake up and keep battling! Don't be a spoilt sport!_'

'I can't believe it, folks! Kit's kecleon has really managed to knock Nasim's linoone out! It looks like I was wrong about it being weak, it really is a secret weapon! That's one amazing kecleon Kit's got there, it's no wonder she's kept its power hidden all this time! It looks like her kecleon could have clinched the match for Kit, or will Nasim's weakened flareon and heracross be able to make a comeback?'

Nasim shook his head. 'No. As their trainer, I know that sending them back out into battle would only do more harm than good. I don't want to see my pokémon faint when I know they don't have a chance. I'm sorry I underestimated your kecleon, Kit. You're a great trainer, you knew it could handle my Linoone. I made the mistake of keeping Linoone out in battle when I should have been able to see that your kecleon was stronger. I concede. You win.'

'And what an admirable display of understanding and benevolence! Nasim has admitted defeat and saved his flareon and heracross from having to faint at the hands of Kit's kecleon! Kit is officially the winner of this third round match! Let's give both her and Nasim a big round of applause for an amazing battle!'

As the crowd erupted in applause, I found myself staring over at Nasim. He'd called me a great trainer, but had I really made the right decisions in that battle? He'd cared about his pokémon enough to know when it was better to quit than to keep going, but I'd stood there and ordered my allies to keep fighting until they were taken down. Although I'd been declared the victor, I couldn't help but feel that Nasim was the real winner of that battle.

* * *

At the Pokémon Centre, Mrs Taylor and Connor came to meet me as I waited for Taylor, Elsie and Cam to be healed. Mrs Taylor was a little worried about the hit her grandson had taken from Heracross, and she also wanted to talk to us about our next round battle. I hadn't even realised it, but the fourth round was the semi-final. We were more than halfway through the tournament already. If we won the next two battles, we'd have won the whole tournament, and more importantly, the Rainbow Wing. 

Eager to find out more about my next battles, I hurried over to the battle roster to find out the name of my next opponent. It was there that my excitement faded, and I ran my eyes over the name over and over again to confirm that I wasn't seeing things.

'What's the matter, Kit?' Mrs Taylor asked. 'You look worried about something.'

'Adrian,' I breathed, staring at the letters as if I hoped I could stare right through them until they disappeared and changed into something else. 'Adrian.'

'You know him?'

'Know him!? Adrian's one of the Team Magma agents who's been chasing me around all this time!'

Mrs Taylor paused, looked at the battle roster, then turned back to me. 'It could just be a coincidence, Kit. It's not as if Adrian is a very uncommon name. It doesn't necessarily mean it's him.'

'Of course it's him! Team Magma knows more about this whole thing than we do, I'm sure of it! So they must be after the Rainbow Wing too! I can't believe we didn't think of this earlier! We should have known they were gonna be in this tournament! We should've prepared for this!'

'It's all right, Kit.' Mrs Taylor put a hand on my shoulder. 'Russell told me he was able to beat Team Magma's pokémon before. I'm sure he can do it again, especially with Elsie and Cam's help. Speaking of whom, they should be healed now. We'd better go and see how they're doing.'

We headed back to the temporary Pokémon Centre, but I couldn't even think straight anymore. Team Magma. We were really going to face Team Magma in the next round of the tournament. Did Adrian have Leon battling for him? Cam's Colour Change may have pulled through this time, but I didn't want to see him become a monster again. Taylor had beaten Team Magma once, but no doubt they'd known about this tournament for ages; they'd have been preparing thoroughly for it. Maybe they'd even have evolved some of their pokémon like William had. How were we ever going to be able to beat them?

'I'm afraid I've got some bad news,' the pokémon nurse said softly, and I just shook my head. Bad news? What news could possibly be worse than the fact that we were up against Team Magma in the next round? 'It's about your ninetales. I'm afraid his leg is broken. We can heal ordinary battle wounds quickly, but injuries like that take a lot of time to heal. The rules state that a pokémon with an injury that serious is not permitted to battle. I'm afraid your ninetales will not be allowed to compete in any further battles in this tournament.'


	28. Chapter 27: Round Four, Howl

Sorry about the ridiculously long wait, and thanks a lot to everyone who's kept reading despite my lack of updates!**  
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**Chapter Twenty-Seven – Round Four, Howl**

As I stormed into the recovery tent I saw three figures: Taylor, in his human form, sat on a table holding his left arm, while Elsie sat beside him rubbing her head against him, and Cam stood at his feet, looking up with wide eyes and an open mouth.

'Russell, are you all right?' Mrs Taylor rushed over to her grandson, Connor following. But I didn't have time for sympathy.

'Do you have any idea what you've done?' I demanded. 'You've just lost this whole tournament for us! Do you know who we're up against in the next round? Team Magma, that's who!'

'Oh, I didn't see you come in . . .' Before Taylor could respond to me, the nurse came into the tent, looking at him uncertainly. He got to his feet and hid his bandaged arm behind his back. 'And where's the ninetales?'

'We put him back in his pokéball so he could rest,' said Mrs Taylor.

The nurse nodded. 'Oh good. Pokéballs are very therapeutic. Of course, for an injury this serious, your ninetales will need a lot of time before it can battle again. You should take it to your local Pokémon Centre as soon as you can for a thorough check-up. But as for the rest of the tournament, well, normally we don't allow trainers to switch teams during the tournament, but we'll have to make an exception. Is there another pokémon you'd like to use in your ninetales's place?'

'Yes,' said Mrs Taylor. 'She can use her vulpix.'

I turned to her quickly. Was she serious? She wanted to make _Connor_ battle? That was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard! Nasim had said that knowing when your pokémon couldn't win was important, and he was right. Making Connor battle wouldn't just be cruel, it'd be useless. Cam was inexperienced, but Connor was more than that, he was weak. There was no way replacing Taylor with him would let us even come close to winning. Anyone could see that.

'That's fine,' said the nurse, glancing down at Connor. The white vulpix tilted his head, as if unsure of what was going on. 'I'll tell the officials about your change in team. You may now return to the competitors' area, your battle will start in half an hour.'

The moment she was gone, I turned back to Mrs Taylor.

'I can't believe you just did that! I know Taylor's stuffed everything up, but you can't honestly expect Connor to battle!'

'Connor?' Taylor asked. 'She didn't mean Connor, you idiot, she meant you.'

I blinked, then shook my head. That was even stupider!

'Uh huh, and don't you think they'll be wondering where the trainer's gone? They're not gonna let us battle without a trainer, genius.'

'Yes,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Once they've fixed up the details about the battle team, we'll speak to them about letting Russell take over as trainer. It might be tough, but if we tell them something urgent's come up for you and you have to leave, they may just let us get away with it.'

'Yeah right,' I said. 'That nurse is already suspicious of us because of how our ninetales mysteriously disappeared and Taylor mysteriously showed up.'

'Who cares?' Taylor asked. 'Let them be suspicious, we've got more important things to worry about. You're just trying to get out of this because you're too scared to battle.'

I glared at him, and realised that this would be my chance to show him who was really the better battler. After he'd been put to sleep by a bellsprout and become infatuated with a flareon, he didn't really have any huge claims to battling prowess. If I could win this battle against Team Magma, I'd finally get the better of him.

* * *

So we went and spoke to the tournament officials. I told them that my mother had had an accident and I had to go, and I hoped the guilt of making such a thing up wasn't showing on my face. After a brief discussion, the officials decided that since I'd made it to the semi-finals, they'd allow Taylor to take over so that I wouldn't lose my chance at victory. I was shocked that they let us do such a thing, especially after we'd already bent the rules in switching pokémon, but we had to make the most of it. I'd been lying to everyone so much lately, and I couldn't afford for this lie to be for nothing. We had to win this.

Once we were alone, I changed into my vulpix form, and waited for Taylor to be impressed that I too had learnt to change at will, but he didn't even say anything about it. I'd practised changing a few times, to make sure that one time I'd done it hadn't just been a fluke, and now that I'd mastered it, I'd been hoping to at least get some recognition, but no such luck. But that was OK. I'd also been practising my fire-breathing, so once I got into battle, I'd be able to impress the others with that. I smiled. This battle was going to be great.

The half hour wait passed quickly, and we were soon heading into the arena. It felt strange to be so low to the ground, walking in under the completely different role of pokémon rather than trainer. As I looked over at my opponent, this wasn't someone I had to outsmart, but someone whose pokémon I had to outmuscle.

Then I blinked, realising this wasn't the figure I'd expected to see on the other side of the battlefield. No hooded red uniform with the M-shaped volcano logo, this man wore casual jeans, T-shirt and sunglasses. Weren't we supposed to be battling Team Magma?

I spotted the pokémon at the man's side: a charmeleon with his arms folded and his eyes narrow. There was no doubt about it, that was Leon. I shook my head. Since I'd only ever seen Adrian in his Team Magma uniform, that's what I'd expected him to wear. But he was hardly going to display his affiliation with a criminal organisation while entering an official tournament. I hadn't recognised him in casual clothes, but this was still the same Adrian from Team Magma.

'Now everyone, as we enter the first semi-final here at the Rainbow Tournament, you may be wondering who this new trainer is,' the announcer told the audience. 'Unfortunately, Kit was called to a family emergency and her friend Taylor has had to take her place. Let's hope everything turns out for the best with her family, and maybe Taylor can even continue her winning streak here at the tournament as he battles Adrian, the trainer who's come to us all the way from Lavender Town in the Kanto region and impressed us all with his battle skills. Now, let the first semi-final match begin!'

'I can't believe those officials fell for that,' said Adrian. 'Do they really think you've left and this vulpix just happened to be there to battle in your team?'

'_And do they really believe you're a trainer from Kanto and not part of a criminal gang?_' I asked, but Adrian made no response, instead turning to Taylor, and I belatedly remembered that he couldn't understand me while I was a vulpix.

'And as for you, "Taylor",' said Adrian. 'Don't think we haven't figured out that you're her ninetales friend, _or_ why you're both trying to get that Rainbow Wing.'

'Will you shut up and get this battle over with?' Leon snarled.

'Good idea,' said Taylor, and looked down at Elsie, Cam and me. 'Elsie, you'd better go in first, I'd say that charmeleon's gonna be up first on their side.'

Elsie nodded and headed out onto the battlefield. Although I wouldn't admit it, I was relieved. I might stand a chance against Poochyena, but not Leon. No matter what Taylor had said about type advantages not being everything, they were still important, and I didn't have much of a chance against another fire-type, let alone one as strong as Leon.

But to my surprise as much as Taylor's, instead of Leon marching out onto the field, Adrian tossed a pokéball, and who should appear but Poochyena herself? She looked over at us and grinned, and I stared back at her. I'd expected Leon to charge into battle first like Taylor had, but now Elsie was out there against a dark-type, so her psychic attacks wouldn't even have any effect.

Taylor ground his teeth. 'Elsie, you'll have to come back.' He looked down at Cam and me.

'_I'll go,_' I said, and Taylor didn't argue as I headed out, switching places with Elsie. This was it. I was sure I could beat Poochyena as long as I stayed focussed.

'Poochyena, Tackle!' Adrian called, and his pokémon charged at me, knocking me onto my back and holding me down. I glared up at her and shoved her off, getting to my feet.

'Judging from the strategies you've used I'm assuming you only know offensive moves,' said Taylor. 'So use Ember.'

I narrowed my eyes. Although I wanted to show him my fire-breathing, doing it on command just felt so insulting. Why had I ever agreed to let him act as my trainer?

As humiliating as it felt, I had to use Ember. So I opened my mouth, heating up the back of my throat with the flame that burned inside my body.

'Poochyena, Roar!'

But before I could form a ball of fire in my mouth, the dark pokémon in front of me opened her jaws wide, the sun making her bare fangs shine, her yellow eyes glow against her black face, and she let out a ferocious roar that sounded like it belonged in the throat of an arcanine or a raikou. I was so startled by the sound and Poochyena's suddenly terrifying appearance that I stumbled back, and before I knew it, I was standing with Cam, Elsie and Taylor, and the fire in my throat was gone. Realising how cowardly I'd been, I turned back to Poochyena to see her ferocious face suddenly jovial as she cackled with laughter.

'_Aww, the poor vulpix girl's scared of me!_' she laughed. I snarled, and was just about to snap back at her when I realised another figure was walking out onto the field to take my place.

'_Cam!_' I exclaimed.

'_Don't make fun of Kit,_' Cam told Poochyena, then got into a battle-ready stance.

'_Call him back!_' I looked up at Taylor. '_I'll go back out there._'

'That's just a waste of time, kid,' said Taylor. 'She already got one free move in last time I switched you in, and what's to say she won't just use Roar again and force you back out?'

I sighed and looked back at Cam. "Force" me back out? He was saying it exactly like it had felt. It may have looked like I'd retreated in fear, but it really had felt like I hadn't had a choice, that it wasn't because I was a coward, but because something had been controlling me, making me back out. If the roles had been reversed, if he'd been the one battling and I the trainer, I was sure I would have insulted him about it, asked why he'd let a little poochyena scare him. So why wasn't he saying that to me? I suddenly felt bad about telling him he was pathetic for being put to sleep by a bellsprout and infatuated by a flareon. They hadn't been his fault any more than Cam's Colour Change ability was _his_ fault . . . that was just the way pokémon battles worked.

'Poochyena, Howl!'

Poochyena threw her head back and let out a long howl, and when she lowered her head again, there was a grin on her face and her eyes were filled with determination. I remembered seeing her use this move before, but back then I hadn't understood what it did. After my research into pokémon battle moves, I now knew that the moves that seemed to do nothing were generally strategic manoeuvres like raising stats. And by the determined look in her eyes and the sharp glint on her teeth, this move had increased her attack power.

'Cam,' said Taylor. 'You know how to use Lick, right?'

'_Oh,_' said Cam, and nodded. '_Yes . . . I haven't used it in a long time though, I'm not sure how good I'll be._'

'Just give it a try. It won't do much damage against a dark-type, but if you can paralyse her, we're in luck.'

Cam nodded, then turned to Poochyena and opened his mouth. I watched in shock as his tongue rolled out and seemed to stretch to amazing lengths. Although lickitungs were hte most famous for their long tongues, kecleons' were just as shocking. Cam slurped up Poochyena's face, and she shuddered, shaking him off.

'_That's disgusting!_' she yapped. '_Not only that, it's pathetic! You think you can beat me with _that'

'_I'm sorry Taylor, it didn't work,_' said Cam, looking down.

'Don't worry, just get ready for her next attack.'

'That's right,' said Adrian. 'And it's gonna hurt. Poochyena, use Headbutt.'

'_With pleasure,_' said Poochyena, and ran towards Cam with her head lowered, slamming into him and sending him up into the air. I cringed as he crashed back down to the ground. It should have been me out there taking that attack, not Cam.

'Cam, you all right?' Taylor asked. Cam pulled himself to his feet and nodded. 'OK, then try another Lick.'

Cam gulped. '_OK._'

What was Taylor saying? Last time Cam had used that attack it had done practically nothing! Why was he wasting time telling Cam to use useless attacks while Poochyna was getting all these free chances to get good hits in? I sighed as Cam again extended his tongue and licked Poochyena's face, but this time instead of shuddering, her body froze up.

'Good work Cam,' smiled Taylor. 'You paralysed her.'

'_I . . . did?_' Cam asked, blushing slightly.

'Big deal,' said Adrian. 'That kecleon's not strong enough to beat Poocyhena, even while she's got a status condition. Poochyena, use Tackle!'

I watched Poochyena ground her teeth as she tried to force her body into motion, but it was useless. The paralysis held her in place.

'So sure it's not a big deal?' Taylor grinned. 'OK Cam, how about Bind, do you know that one?'

Cam paused. '_Yes, I think I remember that one._'

'All right, then give it a try.'

How on Earth did Taylor know what moves Cam knew, when in the last battle Cam himself hadn't even remembered? Had Taylor really studied pokémon battles so hard that he knew pokémon's potential moves? At my level of study, I was still trying to remember moves' effects and types, not which pokémon learnt them . . . now that I was acting as a pokémon and not the trainer, I didn't have to worry about theory as much, but it would have been so much better if I could have battled on my own instead of having to listen to Taylor.

Turning my attention back to the battle, I saw Cam running over to Poochyena and turning around, uncurling his tail and wrapping it around her body, squeezing her and holding her still.

'Your attacks are pathetic,' said Adrian. 'You'll never beat Poochyena with those, and in case you haven't noticed, she only has normal-type attacks, so you can't count on its ability to help you either. Now Poochyena, Tackle!'

'_Take this!_' Cam's tail still wrapped around her, Poochyena threw Cam onto his back. The kecleon winced in pain. He was weakening. Taylor had better have a good strategy or Cam would be knocked out in a few more hits.

'Cam, I want you to try using Fury Swipes,' said Taylor. 'Try to hit as many times as you can.'

Cam took a deep breath, then reached his arms up and slashed at Poochyena's face with his little claws. Poochyena cringed and drew back, but Cam swiped at her again. After taking the second hit, she stumbled back a few steps, Cam's tail pulling him with her. When he tried to scratch her again, she dodged the attack, but his tail quickly squeezed her and drained a little more of her energy.

'Poochyena, Tackle!'

Poochyena repeated her attack, breaking through her paralysis again and knocking Cam onto his back. I could see the pain on his face as he struggled to keep hold of her with his tail. Taylor told him to use another Fury Swipes, and this time he managed to get three hits in before she dodged his attack. As his tail then squeezed her for a small amount of extra damage, I could see that she too was weakening.

'Poochyena, you've gotta get out of that Bind! Try using Headbutt!'

As Adrian's pokémon tried to lower her head, her paralysis kicked in once more, and her attack failed. I smiled. If she kept getting stopped by this paralysis, maybe Cam could beat her! I watched as she struggled from side to side, trying to force her body to move. Finally she managed to make a forceful movement, but not to pull of an attack; instead, all she did was pull herself free of the hold Cam's tail had on her.

'_Oh no!_' Cam exclaimed.

'Don't worry,' said Taylor. 'Just keep it up. Another Fury Swipes should do it.'

'_I'll try_,' nodded Cam. He stepped towards Poochyena and began swiping at her, once, twice . . . I could see her struggling, trying to dodge the attack, but her paralysis must have been too strong. Cam continued to strike her for the third, fourth, and finally fifth time, until Poochyena, panting with exhaustion, managed to evade his next swipe.

'Come on Poochyena!' Adrian called. 'You can't let that kecleon beat you! Use Headbutt!'

'_You'll pay for that attack,_' Poochyena snarled, but the puffing in her voice made her threat unconvincing. She charged at Cam and slammed her skull into his chest, throwing him back. He was shaking as he pulled himself to his feet.

'_Cam!_' I called. '_You should come back, let me take over!_'

Cam shook his head. '_Everyone else has been fighting so hard, and so will I._'

I sighed. If Taylor called him back, it would only make him feel weak and useless. But no matter how determined he was to win this, it was dangerous out there . . ..

'Cam, you know what to do,' said Taylor. 'Try Fury Swipes again.'

I gulped as Cam ran back over to Poochyena, arms outstretched. He slashed at her with his claws, and only hit her three times, not because she dodged the attack, but because that was all he needed. After three swipes, Poochyena collapsed, while Cam and Adrian both stared, amazed that the kecleon had really managed to knock her out.

'Well folks, it looks like this kecleon's Fury Swipes attack has pulled through once again! Through not quite as impressive as its last amazing volley on Nasim's linoone, this has certainly been a great battle. Now let's see which pokémon Adrian sends out next.'

As Adrian held out his pokéball to recall Poochyena, I felt my heartbeat racing. Oh no, here comes Leon . . . we had to get Cam out of there before he got seriously hurt!

But Leon stood right where he was, and Adrian took another pokéball out, tossing it into the arena.

'Numel, you're up!' he said, and I stared as the familiar dopey yellow pokémon appeared. So he was using Rose's pokémon too . . . of course, it would have been stupid for him to enter with only Poochyena and Leon. I should have expected this.

Although we now had two pokémon to take down instead of one, I felt relieved that Numel was out there instead of Leon. Rose's pokémon had never seemed too eager to battle, so maybe Cam stood a chance of beating him too.

'All right Cam, let's see if you can paralyse him too. Try using Lick again.'

Cam did as Taylor said, extending his tongue and licking Numel's face.

'_Hey, stop it, that tickles!_' Numel said, shaking his head. It seemed that the move's paralysing side-effect had failed.

'Numel, that kecleon's nearly fainted, just finish it off with Take Down!'

'_Do I have to?_' Numel sighed.

'Numel, come on! You know Rose will get mad if you lose this battle. You don't want that to happen, do you?'

'_No . . ._' Numel murmured, then sighed again and plodded over to Cam, half-heartedly pushing him over with one of his big round feet. Cam rubbed his back and got back up.

'Numel, you can do better than that! Come on, next time you have to try harder!'

'Cam, you probably don't even need to paralyse this guy, he's not very tough, but let's give it one more try anyway,' said Taylor. Cam nodded and licked Numel again, but the Team Magma pokémon only giggled and once again told Cam to stop tickling him. How many turns were we going to waste trying to get this to work?

Adrian sighed. 'Numel, it's time to get serious. Use Focus Energy!'

'_Focus Energy?_' Numel asked. '_That's that hard move . . ._'

'Numel, come on, please? Rose told you to do what I tell you. Do you want her to get mad at you? You know how scary she is when she's mad.'

Numel gulped. '_All right, all right._' He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath through his nostrils. That taillow from the first round had used this move too. Concentrating his focus had increased his potential for critical hits. But with a pokémon as dopey as Numel, could it really be just as effective? Unless . . .

When Numel opened his eyes again, his expression was different. His eyes no longer drooping, they were narrowly focussed. For once, Numel actually looked like he was ready to battle.

'That's the spirit, Numel!' Adrian called. 'Well done!'

'Cam,' said Taylor. 'That new expression reminds me of a camerupt, and they're known to go pretty wild in battle. You'd better use Bind to try to keep him under control.'

'_OK._' Cam uncurled his tail again and wrapped it around Numel's body. Since Numel was a lot larger than Poochyena, Cam's tail couldn't wrap as many times around his body, but his grip still appeared pretty firm.

'What a waste of time, using a multi-turn attack on the turn you get beaten,' said Adrian. 'Numel, Ember!'

I opened my eyes wide. Ember? But wasn't Numel a ground-type?

Sure enough, Numel opened his mouth and spat out flecks of fire. Cam cried out, and his tail's grip around his opponent's body began to slip, until he lost it completely, and fell onto his back, passed out.

'_Cam!_' I cried out, not even listening as the announcer began talking. I stared at the kecleon's still body for moment, then glared up at Taylor. '_How could you do that to him? Why didn't you call him back? The only thing using Bind did was make the attack worse because he was so close!_'

Taylor shook his head and walked out onto the field, picking Cam up and bringing him over to us.

'You can't just expect that no one's gonna get hurt,' he said. 'This is a _battle_ we're talking about. Elsie, you ready?'

Elsie nodded, and headed out onto the battleground, while I glared up at Taylor. Why did he have to be so cold about it, like he'd known all along that Cam was going to lose but he'd gone ahead and made him keep fighting? Was he on some kind of power trip, doing this on purpose to take revenge on me for when I'd been the trainer and he'd had to battle?

'Elsie, let's start with Calm Mind.'

Elsie closed her eyes and relaxed, gathering her psychic energy. Hopefully with her boosted power, she'd be able to take Numel out fairly quickly and teach him a lesson for hurting Cam.

'Numel, Take Down!'

Numel ran towards Elsie and bowled her over, with much more force and effort than he'd used with Cam. But Elsie wasn't giving up that easily. She leapt up and pushed Numel back, causing him to stumble back a few steps.

'Elsie, try using Psychic.'

The espeon opened her eyes wide as they glowed and a cloud of purple energy appeared around Numel's body. He was thrown back to the other side of the arena, where he landed with a thump and a moan. He lowered his head to rub it with his foot.

'Numel, come on! Use Take Down again!'

Numel moaned, still rubbing his head. '_But my head hurts . . .._'

'Numel! You're supposed to be focussed! Remember Focus Energy? Come on, focus! Use Take Down!'

Numel sighed and plodded over to Elsie, unenthusiastically bumping into her and hardly even budging her, let alone knocking her over.

'Looks like this is gonna be even easier than we thought, Elsie,' said Taylor. 'Use Psychic again.'

Numel was thrown back across the field again, this time not even bothering to get up as he rubbed his head, moaning.

'Come on, Numel! You have to concentrate! Use–'

'Useless!' Leon cut him off. 'I told you it was useless sending those buffoons out! I should've handled this myself right from the start!'

Shaking his head, he stormed onto the field.

'But Leon . . .' Adrian held his hand out, then dropped it down with a sigh and took out Numel's pokéball. 'Numel, return.' He shook his head, looking at the ball. 'Rose is gonna be mad at you.'

'Elsie, be careful,' warned Taylor. 'This guy's the strongest. I think you'd better use another Calm Mind.'

Elsie nodded and closed her eyes again, staying perfectly still as Leon marched right over to her.

'OK Leon, why don't you start with–'

Adrian cut himself off as Leon opened his mouth to blast a stream of flames at Elsie. The espeon cringed as the fire surrounded her body, but she stood strong and took the attack.

'Elsie, hang in there. He's strong, but so are you. Use Psychic.'

Elsie's eyes glowed and she psychically lifted Leon into the air and threw him away. He leapt back to his feet and charged back over to her, holding his claws up high. When he reached her he swiped them down her face in a powerful Slash attack, causing her to retreat a few steps in pain.

'Leon, you're doing well!' Adrian called. 'But I think you'd do even better if we worked together!'

'Quiet!' Leon snarled, turning around and spitting a ball of fire at Adrian. The man ducked and narrowly missed the attack, then stood up straight and sighed, shaking his head.

'Quick Elsie, use Psychic while he's got his guard down,' said Taylor.

Elsie unleashed her attack, and the moment it was finished, Leon turned and charged back at her, slashing at her with the claws of both hands. Elsie cried out, and I could tell from the pain in her voice that Leon had landed a critical hit . . . too critical, in fact, as she fell to the ground and passed out.

I went cold. I'd been so caught up in watching the battle that I'd forgotten what kind of situation we were in. I wasn't a spectator, I wasn't even a trainer, I was one of the pokémon who was part of the battling team. Cam and Elsie fainting didn't just mean that we only had one battler left, it meant that we only had me left.

'Elsie!' Taylor rushed over to the fainted espeon and pulled her into his arms, getting up and walking back over to us. Even as he placed her motionless body on the ground beside me, I couldn't accept that it was happening. Even as he turned to me with a sigh, I couldn't believe that our chance to get the Rainbow Wing now depended on me being able to beat Leon.

Taylor looked at me silently, and I swallowed. If I lost this battle, he'd never forgive me. For the rest of my life, I'd have to put up with him reminding me that I'd ruined all our chances to help Ho-Oh.

I couldn't let that happen.

So without a word, I turned and walked onto the battlefield, taking my position opposite Leon. I had to win this, that was all there was to it. I had to find a way.

'Leon, this should be easy,' said Adrian. 'You should just–'

'How many times do I have to tell you you're not my trainer?' Leon growled. 'I'm no more a slave to a pathetic human than she is a real pokémon!'

I felt my heart skip a beat. Me, not a real pokémon? He'd said that before, but that had been before I'd remembered everything . . . about growing up as a vulpix, about my friend Taylor the ninetales and my ninetales parents. Now that I'd remembered that, myself as a pokémon couldn't take that kind of insult. What right did he have to say those memories weren't as real as the memories of any other pokémon?

'_I'm just as real a pokémon as you are!_' I barked, and the charmeleon's eyes turned red, fire spilling out of the sides of his mouth as a snarl rose from deep in his throat.

'You have no idea what it is to be a real pokémon!' He opened his mouth and unleashed a beam of flames, but even as they headed straight towards me, I wasn't afraid. It was fire, and how could I be afraid of fire? Fire was the one thing that seemed to understand me in this world . . . much more than I understood myself. Fire wasn't my enemy, it was my friend, and a true friend would never hurt me, it would support me and help me to become stronger.

So I let the flames spread through my fur, and I could feel the burning, but it didn't hurt. Instead, the burns seeped through my skin and into the fire that burned inside my heart, and the soft blaze shot up into a conflagration of energy.

'What's going on?' Leon demanded. 'That Flamethrower should have knocked a weakling like you out cold!'

I couldn't help but smile. '_Don't you know that no _real_ vulpix can be hurt by fire?_'

'Kid, listen,' said Taylor. 'Knowing you, you don't know Flamethrower yet, and even a boosted Ember's not gonna be strong enough to do worthwhile damage against a fire-type, so you're better off using Quick Attack.'

'_Yeah right,_' I said. Like I was gonna pass up this opportunity! I could feel my internal flames blazing more brightly than ever. Choosing not to use them would be like betraying fire itself! I'd been hoping for a way to win this, and I was sure that this was it. After all, I trusted fire more than I trusted that stuck-up boy pretending to be my trainer.

I opened my mouth and puffed out a breath of hot air, which sparked into flames and turned into a whirring ball of fire as it flew through the air towards Leon. It hit him in the chest and he took a step back, then shook his head and stood up straight, glaring over at me.

No! How could my Ember attack have done so little?

'What did I tell you, kid? Just stick with Quick Attack, fire's not strong enough!'

'_It doesn't matter _what_ pathetic attack you use, it won't do anything against me!_' Leon ran over to me and spun around, and I felt a heavy slap on my face as he whacked his tail into me. I yelped in pain; that tail felt as solid as an iron bar! I cringed and forced the tears that were forming in my eyes to stop. It's only pain, Kit. There are a lot of things that feel worse than pain, and one of them is letting your friends down. You have to put up with the pain and win this battle. For Cam and Elsie who've battled so hard to come this far, for Connor and Mrs Taylor who were cheering for us . . . and for Ho-Oh, whose fate rested on the outcome of this tournament.

'Kid, come on! You need to use Quick Attack!'

I shook my head and looked over at Leon. After two of Elsie's Psychics and one of my Embers, he was still standing strong. Taylor was right, my Ember wasn't strong enough. I had to ignore the pride that was telling me to disobey him and my instinct that was telling me to stick to fire. I had to listen to his advice.

My eyes focussed on Leon, I crouched down and then sprung out, propelling myself towards him. As I slammed into his chest I managed to knock him down, and I grinned at the triumph of overpowering him. But my glory was short-lived, as the charmeleon threw me onto my back and slashed his claws down my face.

I cried out as his claws ran straight through my fur and into my skin, piercing it and ripping down. I stumbled back, the world around me spinning as my whole head throbbed with pain. How? How did pokémon withstand this? How did they stay focussed on battling no matter what their injuries?

. . . And why couldn't I do the same?

'Kid, come on! Snap out of it! You've got to attack! I know he's strong but you have to keep fighting! What's the point in coming this far and giving up? Fight back! Use Quick Attack!'

I took a deep breath, panting as I forced my head up to look at Leon. Hardly able to make out the details of his ref figure through my dizzy vision, I took a step forward and stumbled, almost falling over but regaining my balance just in time. Come on. You can do this. You can prove that you're strong too, that you can beat him, win this tournament, and save Ho-Oh.

I ran towards Leon and threw myself at him, but my body only slipped down his scales and collapsed on the ground.

'Pathetic,' said Leon, stamping his foot on my head. 'You're just as pathetic as the rest of you humans. This'll teach you the difference between a real pokémon and a cheap fake!'

With that, he swiped his claws down my face again, but I could hardly feel the pain anymore, only the horrible coldness as my vision went blurry and my body felt light.

It was over. I knew there was nothing left that I could do. I'd watched Taylor, Elsie and Cam fight their hardest through this tournament, and the moment it was my turn to help, I'd let them all down and ruined everything.

Leon was right. I was pathetic. And I wasn't a real pokémon, because real pokémon didn't give in to pain that easily.

But I wasn't a real human either, because real humans didn't let down their friends like that.

I was nothing. I was no one.


	29. Chapter 28: Final Round, Astonish

**Chapter Twenty-Eight – Final Round, Astonish**

I woke up to find myself lying on the recovery table in the temporary pokémon centre. I was in my human form, but I didn't have the energy to care that the nurse or someone else may have seen me change back. All I could think about was what I'd done, what I'd caused, what I'd ruined. We'd had a chance at winning that Rainbow Wing, and the others had fought so hard, and then the moment it had been my turn to help, I'd been utterly defeated, hardly even putting up a fight.

Cam had thought that he was weak, but he'd managed to beat that linoone and Pocchyena. Who had I managed to beat? Who had I _ever_ managed to beat? No one. Thinking that I could possibly have stood a chance had been stupid. I should have just accepted that I was a worthless loser right from the start.

'How are you feeling?'

I nearly jumped at the sound of the human voice, thinking it was the nurse and wondering how I'd explain myself to her. But then I turned and saw that the voice had come from Mrs Taylor, sitting beside the table. I sighed and looked away. How could I face her or any of the others after what I'd done?

'You fought very bravely,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You–'

'No I didn't!' I shouted, turning back to her. 'You don't have to try to fool me with those motherhood statements! I didn't fight bravely, I hardly even fought _at all_! When you tell me things like that, the only thing you're doing is giving me a false sense of security which is what makes me do such idiotic things like telling myself I can win when I really should just be accepting that I can't!'

'I'm only telling the truth, Kit. I didn't say you fought strongly or thoughtfully, I said you fought bravely, and you did. And you tried your best. You're right, we should just accept the truth, and if the truth is that that charmeleon was too strong for you, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. If you truly accept that you couldn't win, there should be no room for regret. There was nothing you could do. You should be proud that you fought bravely.'

'What's there to be proud about losing?'

'Exactly what I said: that you fought bravely. If you couldn't win, you couldn't win. There's nothing you could have done to change it.'

'Then what was the point of even trying?'

'Because trying makes you stronger. If you want to be able to beat that charmeleon, you can't expect to be able to do it instantly. You learn from your defeats more than from your victories.'

'Yeah, well that's a whole lot of use when Team Magma's gonna win that Rainbow Wing, isn't it?'

'It's not over yet, Kit. Even if they get the Rainbow Wing, there's still hope. Ho-Oh has more of a chance of understanding pokémon than humans, and that's why you and Russell still have a chance even if Team Magma has the Rainbow Wing. And besides, they don't have it yet. The final match is on now. If you've got the energy, let's go and watch it.'

I got up off the table. 'The nurse didn't see me chance back, did she?'

'No, but I think it'd be a good idea to change to a vulpix before she does see you.'

She was right about that. I called up the fire in my heart, spreading it through my body and moulding it into its other shape, until I was standing on all fours as a vulpix. If I was able to transform so readily, surely Ho-Oh's power was still with me, and maybe that meant that Mrs Taylor was right about something else: that maybe we did still have a chance to help Ho-Oh after all.

* * *

We went and met Taylor, Cam, Elsie and Connor in the audience. I avoided eye contact, especially with Taylor, who I was sure was going to yell at me about how I'd ruined everything. But he didn't. All he did was tell us what had happened in the battle so far: that both Adrian and his opponent had each had two pokémon defeated, and it was now down to Leon and a sableye. Then we were silent as we turned to watch the rest of the battle.

Sableye was weakening, but his attacks were still strong. Leon was acting like his usual self, throwing out full-strength attacks without listening a word to what Adrian said.

'Sableye, Shadow Ball!'

The small purple ghost held out his hands, gathering a dark energy between them. As the energy took shape into a dark ball, he threw it at Leon, knocking the charmeleon back. I could see from the way he scrunched up his face that the attack had done a lot of damage, but I knew from experience that there was no way he'd accept defeat that easily. He leapt up and coughed up a ball of fire, which hit the sableye and made him fall onto his back.

'Come on Sableye, hang in there!' his trainer called, and the tough little pokémon pulled himself up. 'Use Astonish!'

Sableye began waving his arms, and then his eyes glowed, and balls of blue energy appeared on each side of Leon. Before the charmeleon could do anything to fight them off, they slapped into him from both sides. Leon stumbled back, holding his hands in front of his face and clenching his teeth together.

'Leon, are you OK?' Adrian called. The charmeleon snarled but stayed still.

'Quick, Sableye! While it's flinching, use Shadow Ball!'

'_Time to end this!_' Sableye once again formed a ball of dark energy and hurled it at Leon. The attack knocked Leon out of his recoil, and he quickly shot back another Ember.

'Sableye, Detect!'

Just as the ball of fire was about to hit the ghost pokémon, his diamond eyes glinted and the fire seemed to fly straight through him and disperse. The toothy grin on Sableye's face widened.

'_Betcha weren't expecting that!_' he said.

'Then let's see if you're expecting _this_!' Leon threw his head forward and blasted a stream of flames at Sableye, engulfing the grinning pokémon in the inferno. When the fire died down, Sableye's purple scales had been charred black, and his grin had melted into a gape. He fell to the ground.

'There it is, folks!' the announcer shouted over the roar of the crowd. 'Adrian's charmeleon has unleashed its Flamethrower and taken down Carlo's sableye! You know what this means: Adrian from Lavender Town in Kanto is the winner of the Rainbow Tournament! Let's give him a big round of applause, folks!'

My head was spinning as the people around us erupted into cheers. They had no idea. No idea that Adrian was from Team Magma. No idea what that could mean if he got hold of the Rainbow Wing. No idea how much danger Ho-Oh could be in. No idea what that could mean if Lugia was really planing something.

I couldn't take it. I got up and ran through the audience and out of the arena, changing my form back into a human and stumbling onto my two legs as I rushed to the officials' tent.

'Adrian has to be disqualified!' I demanded.

'Kit Tanguy!' one of the men there exclaimed. 'I thought you'd left to go to a family emergency?'

'That's not important right now! Adrian, the guy who just _won_ this tournament, he's from Team Magma!'

'Team Magma? That's ridiculous. Adrian's from Kanto, everyone knows Team Magma operates in Hoenn.'

'That was a cover-up! You don't think he's really some goody-goody trainer from Kanto, do you? I'm telling you, he's from Team Magma! Do you remember that incident when Team Magma invaded the national park while Spectrum High was on camp? Well I was there! And _Adrian_ was one of the Team Magma agents who did it! I _saw_ it!'

'I'm sorry Kit, but without any proof, we can't–'

'You're just gonna let a criminal get hold of the Rainbow Wing? That's not just any prize we're talking about, that's the thing used to summon Ho-Oh!'

A smile curved on the man's face, and he put a hand on my shoulder.

'The Rainbow Wing is a rare and valuable item, but Ho-Oh is just a legend. You should be old enough to know that.'

'What? You're supposed to be a Pokémon League official and you're going around telling people that legendary pokémon don't exist? Are you _crazy_?'

I couldn't control myself. I'd expected him to argue with me about Adrian being in Team Magma, but _this_ . . . it had been one thing when Amanda had said she didn't believe in legendary pokémon. For a pokémon authority to say it . . . that was just disgraceful. No wonder the true ideals of pokémon trainers were being lost. No wonder pokémon had gien up their trust in humans.

'What are you doing in here, Kit?'

The cocky tone of the familiar voice made me shiver. I spun around to see Adrian entering the tent, Leon and the tournament referee beside him.

'I'm here to get you disqualified!' I told him.

'Disqualified?' he asked. 'Don't be a sore loser, I won fair and square.'

'No one from Team Magma fights fair and square!'

'What's Team Magma?' The smile on Adrian's face made my blood boil. 'Back in Kanto there was once a group called Team Rocket, but–'

'Shut up! You're not from Kanto! Just cut the act!'

'Not from Kanto?' Adrian reached into his pocket and took out his wallet, opening it and pulling out a small card. He held it out to me. On one side was a photo of a younger version of himself, while on the other was his details, and at the top a clear heading: "Pokémon Trainer ID". 'Then why do I have an official Kanto trainer ID, signed by Professor Oak himself?'

Like I was gonna fall for that.

'Because any member of a criminal organisation knows how to fake an ID,' I said.

Adrian chuckled and put his wallet back, turning to the officials.

'Sorry about this,' he said. 'Kit and I have a friendly rivalry going on, she's just being a sore loser. You know what little kids are like.'

'I'm _fourteen_!' I shouted. 'And what makes you think you can–'

'Kit, I think that's enough,' the official cut me off. 'We checked up on all the entrants before starting the tournament. None of them have a criminal record.'

'That's because he hasn't been caught yet! And he hasn't been caught because people like you let him get away with it!'

'Kit, please. Stop this. Don't ruin Adrian's victory for him.'

'How can you not see that this is all an act? Just look at the way he's smiling, it's so obvious he's getting away with something!'

'I'm smiling 'cause I just won my first tournament. Come on Kit, can't you just be happy for me?'

'Shut up! I swear if you're still smiling like that in ten seconds' time I'll–'

'Kit!'

Another voice called my name, and I ground my teeth as I turned to see who it was. It was Mrs Taylor, rushing up to us.

'I'm sorry,' she said, looking at the officials. 'She doesn't meant his. She–'

'What? You mean _you're_ gonna let him get away with it too?'

Mrs Taylor lowered her voice. 'Kit, please. This isn't the way to solve this.'

'Then what do _you_ suggest? We just let him get the Rainbow Wing?'

'Please, both of you,' the official cut in. 'I have to ask you to leave. We need to prepare for the award ceremony.'

Grinding my teeth, I stormed out of the tent. So we were just gonna let him get away with it? We were really just gonna let Team Magma get the Rainbow Wing and give up on everything we'd been striving towards?

This wasn't my fault anymore. Everyone else was contributing as much to our defeat as I had.

* * *

'Thank you to everyone who's competed in the Rainbow Tournament, brought to you by Regice Refrigerators and Wonder Guard Security! Unfortunately there can only be one winner, and so we're here now to award one lucky trainer with the rare and valuable Rainbow Wing!'

I stared straight through the announcer as I watched him speak into the microphone, standing beside Adrian with that smug smile on his face and Leon with his arms folded, tapping his foot. Why? Why were we standing there watching? Why were we doing nothing at all while Team Magma took away our chance at helping Ho-Oh right in front of our eyes?

' . . . and so we're happy to present the winner of the tournament, Adrian from Lavender Town in Kanto, with the Rainbow Wing!'

One of the tournament officials opened a black box, and the crowd gasped as light glowed from inside it. The official held the box out to Adrian, and the undercover Team Magma agent reached into it and took out a seven-coloured feather.

I leant forward, my heart pounding. The glow of the feather, the seven colours . . . I could feel Ho-Oh's presence in that feather. The beating of her wings, the scratching of her claws, I could hear it. The colours of her wings, the glow of her golden crown, I could see it. All of it was there, somewhere, in that feather. How could the tournament officials not feel it too? How could they see that feather and still say Ho-Oh was only a legend? And how could they just give it away like that? Even if they didn't believe that Adrian was from Team Magma, how could they give him the Rainbow Wing? How could they give it to anyone? How could they let that kind of power get into anyone else's hands?

The announcer held the microphone out to Adrian. 'So how does it feel to be the winner of the Rainbow Tournament and the new owner of the legendary Rainbow Wing?'

Adrian smiled. 'Good. It's just the breakthrough I've been waiting for. It may even get me a promotion to Admin.'

'Promotion?' the announcer asked. 'Now that sounds interesting. Are you a member of a pokémon trainers' club?'

Adrian laughed. 'You could say that.'

I couldn't believe this. He was practically _telling_ them he was a member of that criminal organisation! Why couldn't they see what was going on here? Why didn't they do something to stop him getting away with it?

'Come on, don't be shy, tell us more.' The announcer was still smiling enthusiastically. Did he really have no idea what was going on?

He held the microphone out to Adrian, but before the Team Magma agent could answer, a whirring sound from overhead came closer and closer. Everyone looked up to see a dark red helicopter coming towards the arena. It stopped overhead and the door was slid open. A woman in a Team Magma uniform leant out the window and threw down a rope ladder. Leon and Adrian took hold of it.

'I'd love to stay and chat!' Adrian called over the sound of the helicopter. 'But I've got business to attend to!'

My blood was boiling as the helicopter rose into the air and turned away. Why hadn't those morons listened to me? Why hadn't they believed me? If only they'd paid me some attention instead of passing me off as a jealous little kid, all of this could have been prevented, but no, now Team Magma was getting away with–

'Hurry up, kid!'

I felt someone grab my arm, and I spun around to see Taylor pulling me with him as he and the others pushed through the audience to get out. I yanked my arm free and followed them. I didn't know what they thought we were gonna do, but it was better than standing there staring at the sky as Team Magma got away.

We piled into Mrs Taylor's car, Taylor in the passenger seat and me and the pokémon in the back. Eyes fixed on the distant helicopter, Mrs Taylor headed after it was best we could on the roads.

But it was hopeless. No land-based vehicle could catch up to a flying one. And it was only a minute or two before we'd lost sight of Team Magma's helicopter altogether.


	30. Chapter 29: Riddles

**Chapter Twenty-Nine – Riddles**

After losing sight of Team Magma, we kept driving, following the general direction the helicopter had headed in but knowing we had little chance of finding them. We'd been driving for about twenty minutes, and were on the verge of giving up hope, when a news announcement on the radio caught our attention.

'At the conclusion of today's pokémon tournament in Aurous City, the tournament's victor revealed himself as a member of Hoenn-based crime syndicate Team Magma. He departed the scene by helicopter, and police have followed the chopper to the Sulfur Rainforest, where it was seen landing. However, police have been unable to locate the Team Magma agent or his associates in the rainforest. As yet it is unconfirmed whether this is the same Team Magma unit that infiltrated the Aruto National Park some weeks ago, but a connection between the two incidents is likely.'

'I _told_ them it was the same guy from the national park,' I muttered.

'Police are unsure of what Team Magma's interest is in Aruto,' the report continued, 'but it appears that only a minor division of the organisation is operating here, and there is no cause for alarm among citizens.'

'No cause for alarm?' I asked. 'Even if it's only two of them, they're _still_ part of a criminal organisation. As if telling people not to be alarmed is gonna help.'

'They're just saying that 'cause they don't know what Team Magma's up to,' said Taylor. He turned to his grandmother. 'We've gotta get to that rainforest.'

'I'm already on the way,' said Mrs Taylor.

'_But what _is_ Team Magma up to?_' Cam asked, and suddenly we were all silent again. I belatedly realised that we had no idea. All we knew was that we were trying to stop them, but as for _what_ we were trying to stop them from doing, we had no clue.

'Maybe it's time we put together all the information we know about Team Magma,' said Mrs Taylor. 'If we're going to put a stop to them, we need to be as sure about their motives as we can be.'

'Motives?' I asked. 'We don't even know what their _goals_ are, let alone their motives.'

'Well we know it's something to do with Ho-Oh,' said Taylor. 'Why else would they be after the Rainbow Wing?'

'But it's not just about Ho-Oh. The whole reason we met them in the first place was 'cause they were trying to catch _me_.'

'Then perhaps Team Magma knows a lot more about why you two can change into pokémon than we do,' said Mrs Taylor. 'We think it has something to do with Ho-Oh but we don't really know what that something is. Maybe Team Magma does.'

'Hang on,' said Taylor. 'Eustacia said that she heard that Team Magma somehow heard the legend of Spiritfox and Soulfire and so they're after the Sacred Ash. To me, the Sacred Ash in that legend makes the connection between Ho-Oh and the transformation pretty obvious. They might not know more than us after all.'

'_So is that why they were after the Rainbow Wing?_' Elsie asked. '_To summon Ho-Oh and find the Sacred Ash? Perhaps they're just trying to find out the secret of the connection between humans and pokémon._'

I swallowed. If that was really what Team Magma was after, how were they any different to us? I wanted to know that secret too. Surely there had to be more to it than that. I couldn't be seeking the same answers as a criminal organisation!

'Maybe,' said Taylor. 'But we're forgetting the whole reason _we_ were trying to get the Rainbow Wing. We wanted it to summon Ho-Oh so that Lugia wouldn't be able to have his revenge. What if Team Magma knows something about the Sun and Moon legend too?'

'What, so you reckon they're trying to stop Lugia too?' I asked. 'I doubt it.'

'Why?' Taylor asked. 'They may be criminals but they're still humans. They don't want Lugia to have his revenge any more than we do.'

'Well if they're just trying to do the exact same thing we are, why are we trying to stop them?' I muttered. 'Why not just let them go ahead and do it?'

'Because we don't _know_ what they're after,' said Taylor. 'This is just speculation. That's why we've gotta follow them and find out as much about this as we can.'

It took us about twenty minutes to reach the Sulfur Rainforest. There were police barriers all around it, and when we drove up to the entrance, one of the officers came down and told us to leave. We drove down the road a little and stoped the car again. We had no choice: we had to sneak in. And the only way we could sneak past those police officers would be to go in as someone they wouldn't try to stop: as pokémon. So Taylor and I changed into our pokémon forms, and got out of the car with Cam and Elsie. Mrs Taylor said that she'd take Connor back to the vulpix pack and then return to the rainforest to see what we'd found. Connor looked a little uncertain about being left with Mrs Taylor, which was understandable. After being with William for so long he probably didn't like humans too much. It must have been especially uncomfortable for him, as a wild pokémon who didn't fully understand human speech yet.

Then something suddenly hit me. During the drive here, during the Rainbow Tournament, during so many other times, Mrs Taylor had quite comfortably conversed with Cam, Elsie, and Taylor and me while we were pokémon. Being so used to understanding both pokémon and humans, it hadn't ever struck me as odd until now.

'_Hang on,_' I said, just as Mrs Taylor was about to start the car to take Connor home. '_It's one thing for pokémon to understand humans, but how come you can understand pokémon?_'

'It took you _that_ long to ask that question?' Taylor asked. I shot him a glare, and his grandmother chuckled.

'It's a little device I invented in my time as a pokémon researcher,' she said, then reached up to her ear and unclipped something from the back of it, holding it out to me. 'It looks like a normal hearing aid, but it's actually a pokémon translator.'

'_You're kidding!_' I exclaimed. '_You could sell that and make millions!_'

Mrs Taylor paused, then put the device back on her ear. 'You'll have to repeat that. All I heard was "vulpix vulpix vul".'

I blinked. So it was true, she really couldn't understand pokémon without that thing. But that meant that any normal human could understand pokémon with one of those!

'_Why don't you tell anyone about it?_' I exclaimed. '_Everyone would want one! Even if you sold them for a dollar each you'd be a billionaire!_'

Mrs Taylor smiled. 'Because like every invention, there are people who wouldn't use it for good. Sometimes, pokémon don't _want_ to be understood by humans. That separation isn't always a bad thing.'

I wasn't so sure about that. The lack of communication between humans and pokémon had been the cause of so many of my problems. If humans could understand pokémon, would Team Magma have been so eager to catch me? Surely at least part of the reason they wanted to catch me was to do with wanting to understand pokémon.

But I couldn't argue about this now. We had to get into that rainforest and find Team Magma before we lost them again. So I let Mrs Taylor drive away, and then Taylor, Elsie, Cam and I headed for the rainforest. The police watching the boundaries barely blinked when we ran past them and rucked under their barriers.

Once we were in the rainforest, Taylor began sniffing at the ground.

'_This way,_' he said, and gestured for us to follow him. I narrowed my eyes. I may have learnt to breathe fire, but I still hadn't mastered even some of the most basic skills of a vulpix. Although I'd noticed how much stronger smells were when I was a pokémon, I hadn't actually learned how to trace things by scent. It made me look so pathetic when I had to rely on Taylor to handle such a basic technique.

Taylor led us to a clearing filled with police officers. It was clear what they were doing there: in the centre of the clearing stood Team Magma's helicopter, as clear as day. As Taylor led the way forward, one of the policemen spotted us.

'Shoo!' he said, stamping his foot. I growled at him, but Cam touched me on the shoulder and shook his head.

'_We'd better not cause trouble,_' he said. '_I'll go in there, it's OK._'

'_No way,_' I said, and glanced around. I felt like someone was watching us. Team Magma? '_I know the radio announcement said they abandoned the helicopter but what if they're still there?_'

'_It's OK, they won't see me,_' said Cam. He waited for the policeman to turn his head, and then his green scales faded away until they were invisible, and all that could be seen was his purple zig-zag band.

'_Good luck Cam,_' said Taylor, and I sighed as I watched the zig-zag float over to the helicopter. It was one thing him going to inspect a helicopter that we were sure was empty, but what if he wanted to use the same courage against the real Team Magma? They'd caught him once before, would they do it again? Was any of this really worth it? We didn't even know what Team Magma was trying to do. If might not even have had anything to do with us. It might not even have had anything to do with Ho-Oh. Why were we getting involved with something we didn't know anything about?

Cam reappeared from the helicopter in a few minutes.

'_Nothing._' He shook his head. '_There's no sign of Team Magma or where they've taken the Rainbow Wing._'

'_So now what're we supposed to do? Just search the whole rainforest until we–_'

I cut myself off as I caught something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look at the helicopter and saw that there was something on top of it. At a first glance I thought it was a statue, but then I saw that the greens, reds and whites that covered it were thin feathers, and in the middle of its round head was a long yellow beak. But what caught my attention most were its dark eyes, which felt like they were looking at us, but looked like they were looking past us.

'_Is that . . . a xatu?_' Elsie asked. Taylor nodded. '_I've never seen one before. I can't believe there's one right in front of us. Among all the psychic pokémon, xatus are known to have the strongest prophetic powers._'

'_Big deal,_' I said. '_The only thing it can be useful for is if it saw where Team Magma went._' I looked up at the bird pokémon. '_Hey Xatu, did you see where the humans from this helicopter went?_'

When the xatu spoke, its beak was still, and its words were not sounds but messages in my brain. But the way it spoke wasn't even the strange part, it was what it said:

'_Those who master the blasting burn will meet their doom with one wrong turn._'

'_And what is _that_ supposed to mean?_' I demanded.

'_Those who master the blasting burn will meet their doom with one wrong turn._'

'_OK, that's it._' I shook my head and turned around. '_This xatu's useless, we're better off finding Team Magma on our own._'

'_Wait, Kit,_' said Elsie. '_I remember hearing that xatus speak in riddles. I don't think we should ignore this, it might be something important._'

'_Yeah,_' said Taylor. '_And doesn't "blasting burn" sound familiar to any of you? There's a move the charmander family can learn called Blast Burn._'

'_The charmander family?_' Cam asked. '_Does . . . does that mean something happened to Leon?_'

'_Not necessarily,_' said Elsie. '_Kit asked where Team Magma went, so it should be telling us a place, not an event._'

'_A place where a charmander meets its doom?_' Cam asked.

'_A river,_' I shrugged. The others turned to me.

'_Wow,_' said Taylor. '_You're actually offering suggestions instead of complaining about how stupid it is._'

'_Only because I don't want to sit around listening to you try to figure it out. It's obvious. If a charmander takes a wrong turn at a river, it'll fall in and its tail flame will go out._'

'_Well done, Kit!_' Cam smiled. '_Let's go find the river!_'

Taylor sniffed around until he found what he thought might be a trail to a river, and we got moving again. I couldn't help smiling. Although we were still relying on Taylor's nose to lead us there, at least I'd figured out the riddle before he had. Now he couldn't act like the hero he wanted everyone to think he was.

Sure enough, we soon found our way to a river. I expected to see Team Magma waiting there, but instead all that caught my eye was a small, ground, green bird sitting on a rock in the middle of the river. I took a step towards the natu, and didn't even have to speak before I heard its voice in my mind.

'_It is a rock, the experts agree, but at first glance it will not appear to be._'

'_A geodude!_' said Cam. '_Everyone thinks Dale and Dana are just rocks when they first see them._'

'_Hang on, Cam,_' said Taylor. '_You've got it backwards. It said it won't appear to be a rock but it is._'

'_Oh . . ._' said Cam. '_I guess it's not a pokémon, then._'

'_It's a tree,_' I said.

'_A tree?_' Cam asked.

'_Yeah,_' I said. '_Because–_'

'_Because sudowoodos look like trees but they're actually rock-types,_' said Taylor.

'_Oh wow, you can figure it out _after_ I tell you the answer, well done genius!_'

'_Now's not the time to argue,_' said Elsie. She gestured to the large tree beside us. '_Since this tree is so big, it probably means this one. Cam, do you think you can climb up and see if anything's up there?_'

Cam nodded, and then began scurrying up the trunk of the tree until he was out of sight. I was quite shocked. Although I knew that kecleons were good climbers, I'd never actually seen one climb a tree so quickly. And less than a minute later, he was back down on the ground.

'_There was another natu up there,_' he said. '_It said "Although it lowers accuracy, here it makes things clear to see"._'

'_Lowers accuracy?_' Taylor asked. '_That could be heaps of things. Sand-Attack, Mud-Slap, or even an item like Bright Powder . . ._'

Think, Kit, think. If you don't hurry up, he's gonna get it before you. He's definitely on the right track: "lowers accuracy" has gotta refer to a battle technique. But how could htat also make things "clear to see"? It had to be a move that had more than one use. I thought back to the research I'd done in preparation for the Rainbow Tournament. Some moves could have one effect inside battle and another effect outside battle. I hadn't paid much attention to the outside battle effects because I'd been concentrating on the tournament, but I remembered there were these things called "hidden machines" that could teach pokémon moves that helped the trainers outside of battle. They could be used for travelling, like crossing oceans for navigating– wait, that's it!

'_A cave,_' I said. '_It's Flash. It lowers accuracy in battle and brightens caves outside of battle._'

Taylor blinked, and I grinned.

'_So hurry up and get us to a cave,_' I said.

Taylor grunted and put his nose to the ground.

'_Wait,_' said Elsie. '_There's a cave across the other side of the river._'

We looked across and sure enough, about a hundred metres or so from the other side of the river was a dark cave entrance. I squinted and leaned forward. Was that _ice_ I could see around the edges? But how could there be ice in a rainforest?

'_Come on,_' said Taylor. '_We're gonna have to cross the river._'

I gulped and glanced back down at the water. We were at a low and relatively still section of the river, and there were enough rocks lying in it to serve as stepping stones, so we wouldn't have to actually go in the water. But I still felt nervous. I couldn't help thinking of the xatu's riddle about the charmander. What if _I_ took the wrong turna nd slipped into the river?

'_Hurry up, kid!_'

I looked over to see that Taylor had nearly crossed the river, Elsie and Cam not far behind. I narrowed my eyes, lowered my head, and marched onwards. If Taylor could do it, I wasn't gonna be a wimp and give up. So I forced myself to step onto the first rock, ignore the coldness and wetness, and move on to the next, and the next, until I reached the soft ground of the other side.

I was proud at myself for making it through the ordeal, but my joy was short-lived, because as we approached the cave, I heard two voices coming from within. A male and a female, and I recognised both of them. Adrian and Rose. They were in there. We'd found Team Magma.

We stepped into the cave, and I felt a cold wind brush through my fur. I'd been right, there really was ice around the entrance to the cave. And as we headed deeper into it, my feet felt wet, and I looked down to see puddles of water all over the floor. The walls of the cave were frozen, and water was dripping from the melting ice on the roof.

But none of us said a word about it, instead heading down towards where the voices were coming from. The cave twisted and turned, and all the way down, the same ice covered the walls and the roof, the same puddles of water lay on the ground. This couldn't be natural, could it?

When we reached the back of the cave, Adrian and Rose were standing there. Rose's hands were in fists held down sharply at her sides, her teeth were clenched. Adrian stood with his shoulders slumped, his head down. When the two of them turned to look at us, their faces didn't have the proud expressions I'd expected. They didn't start smugly taunting us like I thought they would. Instead they were silent, and only looked at us for a second before turning away, Rose folding her arms and looking at the ceiling, Adrian shaking his head and looking at the ground.


	31. Chapter 30: Leon's Betrayal

**Chapter Thirty – Leon's Betrayal**

'You're too late,' muttered Rose. 'That stupid traitor of a charmeleon took the Rainbow Wing and left, so you may as well give up your little heroic mission.'

'_What?_' I exclaimed. '_Leon ran off with the Rainbow Wing and you're just standing here doing nothing? Why didn't you go after him?_'

When the Team Magma agents met me with blank looks, I belatedly remembered they couldn't understand me while I was a vulpix. At first I was hesitant about changing into a human in front of them, but they already knew about my ability. I didn't have anything to lose, so I changed back, and Taylor did too.

'Where did Leon go?' he asked.

'Like we'd tell you that even if we knew!' Rose said.

'I can't believe you didn't even go after him!' I said.

'Oh yeah, well it's not exactly easy to chase after a teleporting ralts, you know.'

'Teleporting ralts?'

'It was our emergency escape plan,' said Adrian, then sighed. 'But Leon swiped the Rainbow Wing and made the ralts teleport him out of here.'

'Without giving any indication of where he was going? Didn't he tell the ralts where to teleport to?'

'No, he just told it to get him out of here.'

'But he works with you,' said Taylor. 'Don't you at least have some idea of what he's planning?'

'If we knew, don't you think we'd be trying to find him instead of sitting here telling you about it?' Rose asked.

'Fine, if you won't tell us what he wants, at least tell us what you want,' I said. 'What were you gonna do with the Rainbow Wing?'

'That's none of your business. Do you really think Team Magma's stupid enough to tell our plans to a bunch of kids?'

'Well I didn't think you were stupid enough to let your chameleon steal the Rainbow Wing but you proved me wrong there, so who knows?'

Rose ground her teeth. 'It wasn't _me_ who let him take it! It's _this_ softie who keeps going so easy on him, letting him do whatever he wants! He should've listened to me from the start: Leon can't be trusted!'

'It's not like that, Rose.' Adrian shook his head. 'He didn't do it to go against us, he just–'

'Of course he did! If he wasn't going against us, why did he steal our Rainbow Wing and run off, huh?'

'But it's not like that. It's not about us, it's about Moltres. Whenever it comes to Moltres, he just . . . acts like a different person.'

'That's rubbish, he acts the same all the time! He's always going against us!'

'What's all this about Moltres?' I cut in.

Adrian turned to me. 'You were trying to win the Rainbow Wing and you didn't even know it's used to summon Moltres?'

'Isn't it used to summon Ho-Oh?'

'Why would it be? It's a feather _from_ Ho-Oh. The feather Ho-Oh used to summon Moltres.'

'That's it Adrian, just go ahead and _tell_ them! Honestly, how you ever made it into Team Magma with that attitude, I'll never know.'

'What were you trying to summon Moltres for?'

'Will you stop with the questions? We're not gonna tell you anything! And Adrian, don't even think about opening your big mouth again or you'll ruin everything!'

'It's not like there's much left to ruin.' Adrian sighed.

'Exactly! Because of that stupid charmeleon!'

'You can't just blame him. Even if he hadn't taken the Rainbow Wing, what could we have done? Moltres wasn't even here.'

'At least having the Rainbow Wing would have been a step ahead of where we are now!'

'_I don't think we're going to get much out of them,_' said Elsie. '_Why don't we go and find out how Connor's doing?_'

'What and just abandon the leads we've got here?' I asked.

'_We don't really have any leads here. Like they said, Moltres isn't here. Aren't we better off trying to look somewhere else rather than wasting time here?_'

'She's right,' said Taylor. 'While they sit around arguing about who's to blame, we can try to get ahead of them.'

I shrugged. 'Whatever.'

They were right that there wasn't much point staying there, but we had no idea where to begin looking elsewhere. If only Leon hadn't taken the Rainbow Wing. Sure Team Magma would have had the upper hand, but at least we wouldn't have been so clueless about what to do next. Now we didn't even have any clues anymore, and neither did Adrian and Rose. The only one who had any idea of what was going on was Leon, and none of us knew where he'd gone.

We left the cave and headed back through the rainforest. When we got outside, we found a payphone, and Taylor called his grandmother's mobile.

'Hey Grandma, we found Team Magma, but they– what? Leon's _there_? But what is he . . . OK. Look, we'll find a way to get there, don't worry, we'll get there as soon as we can.'

He hung up and turned to the rest of us.

'Leon cut them off before they could reach the pack. He's demanding Connor tells him everything he knows about Moltres.'

'Connor knows about Moltres?' I asked. 'Then why didn't he–'

'No, that's the thing, he doesn't. Leon just _thinks_ he does. We've gotta get back there before he gets really mad and hurts him.'

'And how do you expect us to get all the way back to the Genesis Bushland on our own?'

'I dunno, we'll hitchhike or something. We've gotta get there somehow. Come on.'

He turned, and gestured to us to follow him.

'_Taylor, wait,_' said Elsie. She looked up to the top of the phone box. '_I knew I sensed another psychic pokémon around us._'

I looked up. Perched on top of the booth was a large green bird, sitting as still as a statue.

'That's that same xatu who told us that riddle!' I exclaimed. 'Don't tell me it's been following us this whole time!'

'_Those who solve without one miss may be granted one true wish._'

It was the same voice that had echoed in my mind the first time the xatu had spoken to us.

'_It's going to grant us a wish for solving its riddles?_' Cam exclaimed. '_That's easy, we wish to go to where Connor and Leon are!_'

'Hang on Cam,' I said. 'Wouldn't it be better to–'

My body felt light, and the world around me felt distant. I turned to the xatu just in time to see its wings raised, its eyes glowing. Then my vision blurred, and I blinked, rubbed my eyes. When I found myself seeing clearly again, I was surrounded by trees, rocks, and bushes.

'What in the world? How did _you_ get here?'

I recognised the snarling voice instantly. I saw Leon staring at me, his eyes narrow and his teeth bared. But his attention was quickly diverted as a fluffy red and yellow pokémon leapt at him. It knocked him over and stood back with a smile. It was a flareon. But weren't we in the Genesis Bushland? What was a flareon doing there?

I looked around quickly. The sudden change of location was making me dizzy. I had to orient myself. Behind Leon was a ralts, tilting her head and biting her hand. Behind the flareon was Mrs Taylor, Connor standing at her side with his mouth open and his eyes wide.

'I'm impressed, Russell,' said Mrs Taylor. 'When you said you'd come as soon as you could, I didn't think you meant _this_ soon!'

But Taylor was silent. Wondering why, I turned to look at him. He was staring at the flareon, his face full of uncertainty. Then he glanced down at Elsie, and when I looked at her too, I held in a gasp. Her eyes were wide, her ears were down, and her tail hung between her legs. She took a few steps back slowly.

'_Wh . . . what's wrong?_' Cam asked, stepping towards her.

'_Hey, check it out, it's an espeon!_' the flareon laughed. '_How pathetic! That's, like, the most stupid evolution ever! Everyone knows flareons are–_'

Leon slapped his tail into the flareon.

'You're _all_ pathetic!' he said. 'Just give up trying to fight me, you know you can't win!'

'_Oh yeah? I'll show you how strong we flareons are!_'

'All right Kumar, try another Quick Attack,' said Mrs Taylor. The flareon lowered his head, then shot through the air towards Leon, slamming into him. What was going on here? Mrs Taylor was commanding that flareon! Did she have her own pokémon?

'Grandma . . .' said Taylor. 'Why did you . . .'

'Like I said, I didn't think you'd be here this soon,' said Mrs Taylor. 'I had to do what I could to protect Connor.'

Taylor glanced at the white vulpix.

'Yeah, I guess you're right . . .' He looked back at Elsie and sighed.

'_That's_ what you call strong?' Leon spat, then leapt at the flareon with claws outstretched. He swiped them down the flareon's face, but the canine pokémon held himself up and took the attack.

'Kumar,' said Mrs Taylor. 'This may be a lot to ask, but I want you to try to hold him still while we get Connor to safety. Can you try holding him with Fire Spin?'

'_You got it!_' The flareon held his mouth open and breathed out a thin rope of flames. The fire twisted, wrapped itself around the charmeleon and tightened. Though it didn't seem to be hurting the lizard, it was preventing him from moving. He struggled from side to side, but the fire held him in place.

'Get me out of this thing!' he snarled.

'Quick,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Some of you take Connor to safety before he breaks free.'

'I'll do it.' I stepped forward before Taylor could jump at the chance to be the hero. I bent down to Connor, scooping the white vulpix into my arms. 'Don't worry, I'll get you out of here.'

'_I'll come with you._' Elsie bounded up beside me.

The flareon scoffed. '_Yeah, like an espeon's gonna be much help._'

'Hey!' I said. 'Don't be so stuck-up! Espeons are–'

'Kit, hurry!' Mrs Taylor said. I ground my teeth and forced myself to get moving. I didn't have time to argue; Leon could break out of that Fire Spin any moment. So I started to run off, Elsie beside me.

'Oh no you don't! You're not getting away that easily! You! Use Hypnosis!'

Hypnosis? What was Leon talking about? No one here knew how to . . . to . . . use . . . that . . . . . . move . . . . . .

My body collapsed under me as psychic waves echoed through my mind and numbed my consciousness. Everything went blurry, and I passed out.

* * *

'_Kit, Kit! Wake up!_'

I moaned and sat up. I rubbed my eyes and saw Cam looking up at me. When I glanced around, I saw Elsie, Taylor, his grandmother, and the flareon. Everyone looked drowsy, their eyes drooping, their movements slow.

'What . . . what happened?' I asked.

'_That ralts sent us all to sleep,_' said Cam. '_And they . . . they must have taken Connor . . ._'

'What?' I looked around frantically. He was right: Connor was missing. 'But . . . but what does Leon want with Connor? I thought it was _us_ Team Magma was after.'

'He kept telling Connor to tell him what he knows about Moltres,' said Mrs Taylor. 'He said that fire pokémon societies' leadership is handed down through royal families, which were blessed by Moltres. But Connor said that his vulpix pack doesn't know anything about Moltres, and it doesn't even have a royal family. In his pack, leaders are chosen by the rest of the pack.'

'So why did Leon want him if he doesn't know anything about it?'

'Because he didn't believe him, he thought it was a cover-up.'

'Hang on, if that's true about fire pokémon knowing about Moltres . . .' I turned to the flareon. 'Shouldn't you know about it?'

'_Hmph,_' said the flareon. '_Don't you know anything about flareons? We evolve from eevees, remember? We're not a fire-type species in the same sense that those that only have fire-types in their evolution chains are. Of course, _I_ come from a purebred flareon family. All of my ancestors were flareons, it's a proud tradition in my family to only evolve into flareons. After all, we _are_ the best evolution choice._'

He glanced at Elsie with a smirk, but she wasn't looking at him anyway. She had her head turned, her ears drooping.

'Hey, there are other perfectly good evolutions, you know,' I said. 'Maybe your family should stop being so exclusive and look at the strengths of the other evolutions, like Els–'

Something jerked me from behind, and I spun around to see that Taylor had grabbed me by the back of my jacket.

'Hey! What do you think you're–'

He dragged me back a few steps and spoke to me in a low voice.

'Just don't go there, all right.'

'What? What are you talking about?'

'Just shut up about the evolution thing! You don't wanna get into an argument with him about this?'

'Why not? Do you know that flareon?'

'Of course I know him, he's our farm's best sheepdog! You didn't think my grandmother just called any old flareon in, did you?' He sighed. 'Look, we don't have time for this. Just drop the evolution subject, and do me a favour and don't mention her name in front of him.'

'What? What are you going on about?'

'I don't have time to explain, it's too complicated, and we've got other things to worry about.'

'You expect me to go ahead with your crazy demands with no explanation?'

'Yes I do. We don't have time for this! We've gotta find Connor and the Rainbow Wing!'

'Russell, Kit!' Mrs Taylor called. 'Come on, we're going back to the farm. Kumar's got a good idea: we can ask the torchics about this. Let's go see what we can find out.'

'You heard her, come on,' said Taylor. He turned to follow his grandmother and the others away. He was right, we _did_ have to concentrate on finding Connor and the Rainbow Wing. But I couldn't stand not knowing about things and being expected to do what people told me without any explanation. Weren't we supposed to be allies? Why did everyone have to keep me in the dark?

* * *

When we got to Taylor's farm, Mrs Taylor told Kumar he could go back to the other sheepdogs, while the rest of us went to the torchic coop. Most of the torchics and combuskens backed away from us when we reached the coop. I couldn't help noticing that they seemed particularly scared of Taylor and me. But then I caught something out of the corner of my eye: sitting on top of the cage was a large red pokémon, with feathers and a beak, but a human body shape.

'Hey Bindi,' said Taylor. 'We wanted to have a talk to you about something.'

The blaziken glanced down at us. '_I see._'

'It's about Moltres,' said Taylor. The blaziken's eyes shot down at him. 'We heard that fire pokémon are blessed by Moltres.'

'_Moltres is very sacred to our species. She is not only a legendary fire-type, she is a legendary bird._'

'Then you guys must know a lot about Moltres, right?'

'_We believe that we are the children of Moltres. We're her Earthly counterparts, the fire birds without legendary powers._' The blaziken paused. '_But we also believe that our ancestors did something to offend Moltres. We no longer know what it was, but we're still bearing the punishment._'

'Punishment?'

'_Yes. Moltres took away our ability to fly. She turned our wings into arms and forced us to focus our power in our claws, but the fighting-type doesn't satisfy us. We all long to fly._'

'I'm sure you'll get there someday,' said Taylor.

'_Only once we've atoned for what we did against Moltres. But without knowing what we did, it's hard to know what to do now._'

'But it's not like it was even _you_ who did it,' I said. 'That's if it's all even true. I mean, why should you have to pay for what your ancestors did? It's not your fault.'

'_We all have to bear responsibility of the actions of those who came before us. How can expect others to accept us if we don't accept responsibility for the past?_'

'More like how can Moltres hold a grudge against a whole species because of something the ones around today didn't even do? Are you sure we should be trying to find this bird?'

'_It's difficult to understand at first, but perhaps you'll learn to see it our way. But what is it you're doing? Trying to find Moltres?_'

'Yeah,' said Taylor. 'Do you have any idea where she'd be?'

'_I've heard Moltres rests atop a volcano. But where that volcano is, I don't know._'

'Well, at least that's better than nothing. A volcano, eh? I wonder why Team Magma was looking in the rainforest . . .'

'_Why is it that you want to find Moltres?_'

'Well, we actually want to find Ho-Oh, but we think we probably need to find Moltres first. And she also could be in trouble. This charmeleon's out to find her too.'

'_Why would that put her in trouble? Charmeleons are fire pokémon too. I'm sure they have a strong connection to Moltres, just as we do._'

'This charmeleon's not like other charmeleons. We don't really have any idea what he's up to. He was working with humans from a criminal group called Team Magma, but now he's turned against them, so who knows what side he's even on any more?'

'Whatever side he's on, he's not on _our_ side,' I said. 'He took Connor! He's obviously up to something suspicious.'

'_Connor?_' the blaziken asked.

'The vulpix prince,' I said. 'Apparently he was going on about Connor knowing about Moltres, but Connor didn't know anything.'

'_But as a charmeleon, surely he would know a lot about Moltres himself. I don't understand why he'd–_'

The blaziken's eyes moved to look behind us. I heard footsteps, and turned to see who was coming. It was a girl who I recognised as the one who'd answered the door the day I'd come to Taylor's house and we'd met Taggy and Connor.

'Hello Narelle,' said Mrs Taylor.

'Oh, hi,' said the girl. 'I didn't know you were here. Weren't you and Russell going out somewhere today?'

'Yeah, we just got back,' said Taylor.

'Yeah, I thought I heard your voices. I had to come and tell you this . . . this is so crazy . . .'

'What is?'

'There was just this news flash on TV. You know Mount Cinder, that mountain they reckon was a dormant volcano? Well, you aren't gonna believe this, it's so crazy, but . . . it's frozen over . . .'


	32. Chapter 31: Attack from above

Yes, despite popular belief, this story _is_ still being written! I won't make excuses for the lack of updates, but I will make an apology. I'm very sorry this chapter has taken so long to come out. It's been the longest gap between chapters so far. I really hope there's never a gap as long as this again. Thank you to everyone who keeps reading this story despite the lack of updates.

In response to DarkSov's question (if you even remember asking it, it was so long ago!), no, I didn't give the trainers names from other stories I've read. Have you read stories that have characters with the same names? I guess it's just a coincidence.

**Chapter Thirty-One – Attack from above**

Much to the confusion of Narelle, we hurried back to Mrs Taylor's car. It couldn't be a coincidence that Team Magma had thought Moltres lived in the rainforest but the cave they'd thought she was in had been covered in ice. Bindi believed that Moltres lived in a volcano, and now a volcano had frozen over as well. There had to be some connection.

I was filled with a horrible feeling of foreboding. Our group and Team Magma were both trying to find Moltres, but so was someone else. And whoever it was, they were not only a step ahead of us, they seemed to have a lot more power than us.

As we drove to Mount Cinder, we discussed what was going on: who could be behind everything, what we could be facing. Lugia was an obvious possibility, but I wasn't so sure the legendary beast of the sea was to blame. Of course no one knew a great deal about legendary pokémon, but I'd never heard of Lugia using ice-type attacks.

'Legendary pokémon are believed to be able to use a wide variety of moves,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Besides, many sea-dwelling pokémon are able to use ice-type moves. Ice is just frozen water, after all.'

'Sure, but Lugia's a legendary pokémon, right?' I said. 'It's gotta be pretty skilful. And this is _Moltres_ we're talking about. Would a legendary pokémon really be stupid enough to use ice-type attacks against a fire pokémon?'

'You just answered your own question,' said Taylor. 'Legendary pokémon are skilful. In other words, they don't rely on something as basic as type advantage to get the job done.'

'OK, yes, there are other techniques than type advantage, but types are still important, you know. Why would Lugia use ice moves when it can probably just as easily use water moves?'

'_Kit has a point, but we're all assuming that Lugia, or whoever this is, is trying to defeat Moltres,_' said Elsie. '_Perhaps that's not the reason for this at all._'

I shrugged. Either way, this just didn't seem like the work of Lugia. They day I'd seen Lugia fighting Ho-Oh, the sea beast had brought on darkness and rain to completely overwhelm Ho-Oh. This haphazard freezing just seemed so amateur in comparison. I was sure there was someone else behind this. But speculating was getting us nowhere. We'd just have to wait till we got there.

I could tell when we were getting closer to Mount Cinder. I'd been there once before on a geography excursion, and it had seemed to get warmer the closer we got. But this time it was the opposite. Even with the windows down I could feel the icy air. Branches of trees were blowing to the side as if in a strong gale. We switched the car heater on, but before long we had to stop the car anyway. The road was getting too slippery for us to drive in a straight line. We would have to walk the rest of the way.

As soon as I opened the door, a sharp wind blew at me. I zipped up my jacket, but it hardly made any difference. It was too thin to provide any real warmth in weather like this. I slammed the door shut behind me and wrapped my arms around my chest, shivering. I squinted ahead through the swirling winds and made out the mountain in the distance. It was one white mass, snowflakes swirling around it, not falling from the sky, but spouting up from the summit.

I felt like I was somewhere else. It only snowed in a few small areas of Aruto, and even there the snow was only thin. Having never really travelled before, I'd only ever seen snow in pictures. Surely this couldn't be Aruto.

'It looks like they've got police barriers up again,' said Mrs Taylor. Sure enough, at the base of the mountain, police were blocking the way just like they had at the Sulfur Rainforest. We'd have to go in as pokémon again. Taylor told his grandmother to wait for us in the car where it was warmer. In our pokémon forms, accompanied by Elsie and Cam, we made our way towards the mountain. It was up to us now.

When we reached the base of Mount Cinder, we ducked under the police barriers and headed past.

'Woah, check it out,' said one of the officers, 'a vulpix, ninetales, espeon and kecleon are going to the mountain together!'

'The pokémon are probably just as confused as we are,' said his companion. 'We've got to work together to solve this mystery, and maybe they think they do too.'

The first officer laughed. 'You really think pokémon know anything about this? How could creatures that don't know anything about science be able to explain something like this?'

'But science can't explain it either. Who knows, maybe pokémon are the answer to all this . . . after all, what about what happened with Team Magma today?'

'What's that got to do with what's going on here?'

'I dunno, but we all know Team Magma works with pokémon, and if pokémon know more than us . . .'

The officer scoffed. 'You're the only one who thinks they do. Just watch, those pokémon are done for, especially that vulpix and ninetales. You saw what happened to the other fire-types . . .'

I'd only been half-listening to the officers, but as soon as I heard that, my ears pricked up. Other fire-types? What exactly was going on here?

'_Oh no . . ._' said Cam. '_The poor thing . . ._'

I turned to the kecleon to see him bending over what at first appeared to be a lump of ice. But it wasn't transparent, there was colour inside it: reds and blacks and creamy shades. I peered closer, then took a step back in shock. Inside the block of ice was a growlithe, standing frozen with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, one paw raised. The look of terror on his cold face sent shivers through my own body.

'_Look out, Cam,_' said Taylor. '_I'll get him out of there._'

Cam moved aside, and Taylor opened his mouth and let out a Flamethrower. The ice began to melt, until it sizzled away and the growlithe was left dripping wet. He shook his fur, then darted his head around.

'_What happened? Where's that bird gone?_' he asked.

'_What bird?_' Taylor asked. '_What's been going on here?_'

'_Behind you! Look out!_' the growlithe turned and sprinted in the direction of the police barriers. I looked up just in time to see a plump red bird flying towards us. Its long white tail feathers curled around its front to form a pouch. As it neared us, it ducked a wing into the pouch and took out a ball of ice, hurling it towards us. Thinking fast, I gathered my fire as quickly as I could and spat out an Ember attack. It connected with the ice ball and melted it just before it hit Elsie.

'_Thank you, Kit_,' she said. I smiled, and looked at Taylor.

'_Wow, she actually came through for once,_' he said. Before I could respond, I heard the delibird call out.

'_Don't think you're safe yet!_' he taunted, and suddenly began pelting balls of ice down at us.

'_Run!_' said Taylor. He didn't have to tell us twice. The four of us charged up the mountain, dodging the ice balls while trying to make our way over the rocks and crevices, struggling to keep our balance on the slippery ice and snow.

Concentrating on getting away from the delibird, I didn't have much chance to look at what was around us. But I didn't have to look far to notice that that growlithe hadn't been the only one to suffer the same fate. All over the mountainside were blocks of ice with figures trapped inside them; more growlithes, cyndaquils, slugmas and magcargos. Was this what the officer had meant by what had happened to the fire-types? I gulped at the thought that the same thing may have happened to Moltres.

As we ran on, I noticed Taylor firing Flamethrowers at a few of the blocks of ice. We didn't have time to free all of them, but we could at least try to save some of them while we ran. I nodded to myself and tried spitting Ember attacks at some of the frozen pokémon, but then my heart sank; my attacks weren't powerful enough to melt the blocks of ice in one go. I ground my teeth. If only I'd been stronger like Taylor, _I_ could have been saving some of those pokémon.

But for now I had other things to worry about. Taylor, Elsie and I were managing to keep our distance from the pursuing delibird, but Cam, on his two short little legs, was falling behind. I turned my head to see how he was doing. The delibird's throws were getting closer and closer to him. Any moment and he might be hit with a ball of ice and be turned into a frozen statue like all these fire-types.

'_Don't worry about me!_' Cam puffed. '_You go on ahead and find Moltres!_'

'_But . . ._'

'_If you can find Moltes, you might be able to put a stop to all this! Staying behind to help me will only put you in-_'

His words were cut off as a ball of ice pelted into his back. He fell on his face in the snow.

'_Cam!_' I cried.

'_Go, Kit! Run!_' he urged.

Part of me knew that he was right, that I had to leave him there and go and find Moltres. But when I told my body to move, it felt as frozen as the pokémon who were trapped in blocks of ice. I couldn't just leave him there. I'd let him down too many times already.

I dug my paws into the snow and looked up at the delibird with a snarl. The flying pokémon giggled.

'_Bad choice, vulpix!_' he said, and hurled a ball of ice down at me. I cut it off with an Ember, melting it before it could hit me.

'_Get out of here, Cam!_' I said. '_I'll hold him off!_'

'_But Kit . . ._' said Cam, climbing to his feet.

'_It's the fire-types he's after,_' I said. '_You go on ahead, I'll stall him._'

'_You're right, it _is_ the fire-types we're after, and you've done me a big favour standing right in my path!_' the delibird called. '_You may be able to melt an Ice Ball attack, but let's see you handle _this'

He opened his beak, and I could see an icy blue energy forming inside it. Suddenly the energy formed shape into a beam, and shot rapidly towards me. I quickly used an Ember attack, but when it hit the ice, the flames simply dispersed. I gasped and tried another, but it was too late, the ice was upon me. It hit me on the forehead, and my blood instantly went cold, even before the force of the attack knocked me back. A chill swept through my fur, and I found myself lying in the snow shivering. I tried to pull myself up, but with the heat drained from my body, I could hardly move.

'_Kit!_'

I winced. That wasn't Cam's voice.

'_Kit, is that you?_'

Squinting through the swirling snowflakes, I tried to make out where the voice was coming from. Below me, I thought I could see movement, but it was a mass of white, and I couldn't tell whether all I was seeing as just snow.

'_Kit, what are you doing here?_'

'Quiet, you! Just keep it moving!'

I thought I saw a glimpse of red through the snow. Yes, something was coming towards me, a red figure, and behind it, I could see a small fire flickering.

'_Connor!_' Taylor's voice exclaimed, and suddenly he and Elsie came bounding back down the mountainside.

Connor? Yes, he was right! His white body was practically invisible in the snow, but when I looked hard enough, there was no doubt about it: padding slowly towards us was Connor, the vulpix prince. Leon marched behind him, scowling. And in the air above them floated another small white figure, its green head its most visible feature in the snow. It was that ralts that Leon had been using to do his dirty work.

'_That's it, gather together in a bunch so I can freeze you all at once!_'

I belatedly remembered the delibird. He was still flapping above us, and his beak was curved into a grin. His eyes darted around at us, from Taylor and Elsie to Cam and me to Leon and Connor. Then he seemed to have decided on his target. He opened his beak and shot an Ice Beam straight towards Connor.

'_Connor!_' I called out, and struggled to my feet. I tried to gather my fire into an Ember attack, but my body was still too cold. That Ice Beam was going to hit Connor!

Suddenly Leon snarled and leapt around in front of Connor. He leant his head back and blasted out a Flamethrower. It met with the delbird's Ice Beam, the two attacks pushing forward, trying to overpower one another. But the ice was no match for Leon's fire, and the delibird's attack soon melted. Leon's Flamethrower shot up into the air. The delibird flapped to the side just in time to dodge it. Leon took a step back and grinned.

'_You'll have to do better than that!_' the delibird squawked, and shot another Ice Beam at the charmeleon. In his pride at overpowering the bird's previous attack, Leon was caught off guard. The ice attack slammed into his chest. His body went still, frost spreading over it and solidifying.

I had to smile. As angry as I was with that delibird, if he froze Leon, at least some of our troubles would be gone. Connor would be free, and we'd have one less enemy to worry about.

But before I could get too overjoyed, another beam of fire shot through the air. The delibird cried out as the Flamethrower hit him and covered him with flames. His attack on Leon quickly stopped, and he struggled to turn to face his attacker, but the flames were too strong. He was overcome by the fire attack, and dropped from the sky, his wings charred.

'_You'll . . . pay for that . . ._' he puffed.

'_I don't think you're in any position to make threats,_' said Taylor. The delibird scowled at him. I looked at Taylor in disbelief. _He_ had stopped that delibird's attack on Leon?

'_What did you think you were doing?_' I exclaimed. '_If you'd let him freeze Leon, half our problems would've been solved!_'

'_Think again, kid,_' said Taylor, glaring at me. '_We'd be in even _more_ trouble. We may not need Leon to help us find Moltres, but we do need what he's holding._'

I turned back to where Leon was standing, his teeth bared in a snarl at Taylor. Between his claws was a glowing, multi-coloured feather. The Rainbow Wing. Taylor was right, we did need it. But surely the best manoeuvre would be to try to take it off Leon, not to protect him just because he was holding it.

'_Now let's get going,_' said Taylor.

'Hmph,' muttered Leon, then his snarl turned into a fiendish smile. 'You'll regret that, you know.' He looked up at where the ralts was still floating in the air above him. 'Get moving!'

Ralts nodded, and a glow appeared around Connor's body. The vulpix cringed, and lifted his feet. He stepped painfully around Leon and began trudging up the mountain. The charmeleon followed.

'_Hey, Connor!_' I called. '_What're you doing? Come with _us'

'_He can't,_' said Elsie. '_That ralts is controlling him psychically._'

'_Then do something about it!_' I said. '_You've gotta be stronger than a little ralts, right? Can't you break her control?_'

'_And start a fight with Leon?_' Taylor cut in. '_We're best just following to see what he's up to. He's obviously not gonna fight us unprovoked or else he would've just then._'

'_So we just leave Connor with him?_' I exclaimed.

'_He's not gonna hurt him,_' said Taylor. '_You saw how he defended him against the delibird. He obviously needs him for something._'

'_So we're just gonna let him stay with the enemy until we _see_ what he's up to?_'

'_It's better to wait it out than put him in danger now,_' said Taylor. '_Besides, we can't even be too sure that Leon _is_ our enemy._'

With that, he turned and followed Leon up the mountain. I snarled. Maybe he was right that Leon was protecting Connor _now_, but who knew what might happen next? Of course he was our enemy. He'd always been our enemy!

'_You're not . . . getting away that easily . . ._' a voice behind us puffed. That delibird just didn't know when to give up, did he? He scooped up a ball of snow and raised his wing to throw it at us, but before he could, Elsie stepped towards him. Her eyes glowed, and the delibird was lifted into the air and thrown back.

'_Come on,_' said Elsie. '_Let's catch up to Taylor._'

I held in a sigh and forced myself to move on. My body was still cold and weak, but I didn't want the others to see that. I had to look strong, or else Taylor would keep taking control of the situation and making stupid decisions like letting Leon go and not trying to rescue Connor.

We continued up the mountain, Connor and Ralts in the lead with Leon behind them and the rest of us following wearily. A few other ice-types appeared and tried to cut us off, mainly smoochums and the occasional snorunt, but they were nothing compared to the delibird, and didn't pose much of a threat to us. We were more than halfway up the mountain before anything more unexpected happened.

It was Leon who noticed it first. He stopped still and turned his head sharply to the sky. The rest of us glanced at him before also looking up. I couldn't make out anything unusual, but maybe it was just that I couldn't see clearly through the swirling snow—wait! I may not have been able to see anything, but I could definitely hear something in the distance. It was coming closer to us, a whirring noise that was getting louder and louder. I recognised the sound before its owner came into vision: it was a helicopter.

'What do they think they're doing?' Leon snarled.

'_Is that who I think it is, Kit?_' Cam asked timidly.

It was. As the helicopter flew towards the mountain, it was clear that it was the same one I'd seen when I'd first met Team Magma in the National Park, the same one I'd seen Adrian escape with at the Rainbow Tournament. Team Magma may have seemed like they'd given up when we'd run into them at the Sulfur Rainforest, but they must have heard the news about Mount Cinder too. As conniving and trouble-making as they were, they certainly weren't stupid. They knew when something was up. And now we not only had Leon to deal with, but the human Team Magma agents as well.

The helicopter was headed for the mountain's summit. Surely they couldn't land up there. Were they just flying over to check it out? I swallowed. I wanted to know as much as anyone what was causing those snowflakes to spurt up from the summit, but I was also worried about what might be behind them. Part of me was glad that Team Magma was going to find out first. It did mean that they'd be ahead of us, but at least they'd be going in facing the unknown, whereas we'd be able to watch them first to—

My thoughts were cut off. Amidst the snowflakes, a giant beam of ice shot out from the mountain's summit. It hurtled through the air and slammed into the helicopter. Frost spread over the machine and formed a block of ice around it. The beam stayed suspended from the mountaintop to the helicopter, holding Team Magma's vehicle in mid-air.

All of us stopped where we were, unable to move as we stared up at the frozen helicopter. I knew that we were all thinking the same thing: whoever was behind this was much more powerful than that delibird.


	33. Chapter 32: Doomed Travellers

Um.

Hi.

Yes, I still exist.

I know I will never be able to apologise enough for how long it's taken to update this fanfic. In an author's note on chapter thirty-one, I wrote "I really hope there's never a gap as long as this again.", referring to a three-month gap. Well, as it turned out, the next gap was over two years. I don't really have an excuse, but when I look at the date when chapter thirty-one was released, I realise that's pretty much the same time as I started working seriously on an original story of mine, so . . . I guess that took over as the focus of my writing. However, I never really planned to give up on this fanfic. I often came up with new ideas for it, it was just the actual writing that I never seemed to get around to.

I really appreciate all the people who have been reading the story, whether you've been there since it was first released five years ago, or whether you've just recently read it. I'm especially grateful to those of you who've left reviews or given me feedback directly. Rest assured that I've read every one of those reviews, and I really think it's because of the support you've all shown me that I've finally gotten back into writing the story.

Since it has been such a long time since the last update, you may want to refresh your memory about where the story's up to by reading over some of the older chapters. Or, if you'd rather a quicker way of getting caught up, you can check out the chapter summaries on the _Pilot Light_ web site, which you can get to via the homepage link on my profile. The site has been recoded and also contains new pictures of Kit and Taylor (the old ones were beginning to look really bad to me!). I plan to do new pictures of all the main characters, but of course, my main focus will be on the story itself.

Again, thank you so much to everyone who's been reading this story, and I'm really sorry that it was seemingly abandoned for so long! As I said, I never planned to give up on this fanfic, and I still don't. There may be long gaps between chapters - hopefully never _that_ long again! - but I _will_ see it through to the end.

**Chapter Thirty-Two – Doomed Travellers**

'At least they're out of the way,' Leon muttered. He turned and nonchalantly continued up the mountain, Connor in front of him and Ralts hovering overhead. The rest of us stared at the charmeleon for a moment, then glanced at each other. When the others didn't make a move, I turned back to Leon, my eyes narrow, the rage building up the heat inside of me.

In all the time we'd known Team Magma, it had been obvious that Leon didn't get along with his human accomplices. I could certainly relate to that; although I was friends with Cam and even becoming friendlier with Elsie, I still couldn't stand Taylor. But at least I accepted now that Taylor and I were in this together, working towards a common goal, even if we weren't too sure what that goal was.

Leon, on the other hand . . . not only had he abandoned his teammates, but now, when they had been attacked and were in great danger, all he cared about was that they weren't going to get in his way.

'_What is _wrong_ with you?_' I demanded. '_Those guys have been working with you all this time and you don't even care that they've just been frozen by . . . by whatever's up there!?_'

Leon spun around and snarled at me. 'They deserve everything they get! Those pathetic humans only ever got in my way, and their worthless excuses for pokémon were just as bad.'

He turned his back to me and continued up the mountain. I took a deep breath, feeling my anger reaching boiling point.

'_Don't waste your energy arguing with him, kid,_' said Taylor before I could shout back at Leon. '_You're not gonna get through to him._'

'_I can't believe you're just letting him do whatever he wants!_' I snapped. '_Just whose side are you supposed to be on!?_'

'_Whose side are any of us on?_' Taylor asked. '_We're not even sure what's up there. Until we find out, we should be careful about making judgements on who's right and wrong here._'

'_What is that supposed to mean!? You don't even know if you're on our side!?_'

'_That's not what I meant. If you tried thinking for a moment instead of just yapping your head off the moment you see something you don't like, you might have a better grasp of the situation. Team Magma have always been our enemy. Connor has always been our ally. So if Leon's turned against Team Magma and is protecting Connor, do you really think he's someone we should be picking a fight with? He seems to be the one who knows the most about what's going on here. I say we wait to see what he's up to before picking sides._'

'_And what if he's going up there to hand Connor over to this ice monster!?_' I demanded. '_We can't just stand around and wait to see what happens! We have to do something! If Team Magma couldn't trust him, there's no reason we can!_'

'_Taylor, Kit,_' said Elsie, '_I don't know which one of you is right. You both have good points. But what I do know is that arguing is not going to get us anywhere. Kit is right that Team Magma couldn't trust Leon. But that's where we have the advantage: we _can_ trust each other. We can't lose sight of this and turn against each other._'

'_Yeah . . ._' said Cam. '_They're already getting ahead of us. If we keep arguing, we won't be able to use either of your ideas. Please, let's just stay together and stay focussed._'

I paused, eyeing Cam. The kecleon didn't speak his mind very often, so when he did, I felt like I really had to listen to him. He and Elsie were both right that we shouldn't be arguing. But the reason we'd started arguing was that we didn't know what to do. We needed to make some kind of plan. No matter what Taylor said, I was sure that just waiting wasn't good enough. Sure, we didn't know what was going on at the summit. We didn't know what had frozen Team Magma's helicopter. We didn't know what Leon was up to with Connor. But the only way we were going to find out was if we did something about it.

I narrowed my eyes, and began walking again, padding through the snow at a steady pace to catch up to Leon, but still keeping comfortably enough behind to not make myself appear to be a threat. The others followed in silence. They probably thought that I'd decided to agree with Taylor and just wait to see what would happen. But what I was really doing was trying to observe the situation, to gather as much information as I could and form a plan. I didn't want to admit it, but Taylor had had a point that I needed to think about this. But I also believed that I was right about having to take action. So I would consider all the facts, and figure out what the best action would be.

My eyes fixed on Leon, I watched and listened for some kind of sign. Maybe he would say something that would reveal some information about his intentions, maybe he would do something that would show what action he was planning on taking. But neither happened. He only continued marching up the mountain, silent.

I had my full attention focussed on Leon, so I didn't notice how far up the mountain we'd come till we reached a solid beam of ice protruding out of the mountainside. I ran my eyes over it, to where it expanded into a giant ice ball suspended in the air. Encased in this sphere of ice was the Team Magma helicopter. But it was only the outer parts of the helicopter that had been frozen; through its frosted windows, I could see Adrian and Rose inside, alive and well. Rose had Numel out and by the looks of things was ordering him to charge at the door, but he didn't seem to be co-operating. Meanwhile, Adrian was up against the window, his face distraught. He appeared to be shouting, but his voice was muffled from within his prison of ice. I squinted to try to make out the movements of his lips. It looked as if he was saying the same word over again. No, not the same word. The same name.

"Leon! Leon! Leon!"

I looked back to where the charmeleon was continuing up the mountain, completely ignoring the helicopter. I was filled with mixed feelings. Team Magma, and Adrian in particular, had caused me a lot of trouble. They had attacked me, tried to kidnap me, and had crushed all my chances of saving Ho-Oh by defeating me in the Rainbow Tournament. They were horrible, selfish, violent people with no regard for my own health or safety. And so, seeing them trapped in that prison of ice gave me a sense of triumph, that despite their nefariousness, they hadn't even been able to stop themselves from being defeated by mere frozen water.

But another part of me saw the distressed look on Adrian's face as he cried his ex-accomplice's name, and couldn't help but feel that it was wrong to leave him trapped there. If Lugia and this ice monster really were a threat to the whole world, if we really were trying to stop them in order to protect the world, then judgements had no impact on this whole disaster. It wasn't going to just affect good people, it wasn't just going to affect bad people. It was going to affect everyone. And if we were going to try to put a stop to it, we were going to try to help everyone. When we had freed that growlithe, we hadn't known if he was a growlithe with a good heart or a growlithe filled with evil. So, if we hadn't known Team Magma before this, would we have just as readily tried to free them?

I sighed, continuing to trudge up the mountain. This whole situation had caused me to consider so many things I never would have thought about before. Whose side was Leon on? Whose side was Team Magma on? Whose side were we on? No, those weren't the real questions at all. Because the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the "sides" we'd been defining were too small to be of significance here. There was something larger at work here, something that didn't even take sides into account. And maybe that meant that in order to combat it, we shouldn't take sides into account either.

'_So,_' I said, looking forward at Leon, '_What's up there?_'

'Why did you come if you're so thick-headed you don't even know what's up there?' Leon snarled, not even bothering to turn back to look at me.

I was about to snap back at him that we weren't thick-headed just for being unaware of what was behind some crazy nature-altering disaster, but I didn't get a chance. As soon as he spoke, another beam of ice shot down towards us. It was so fast, and so disguised against the white of the snow, that I didn't even see it coming till it was upon Connor. The vulpix prince didn't have a chance to cry out when the ice solidified around him, trapping him inside, before moving upwards and catching Ralts in its frozen clutches. Leon leapt back just in time to avoid the ice, and it dispersed.

'_Connor!_' I gasped.

'_Now look what you've gone and done, kid!_' Taylor snapped at me, rushing forward.

'_Me!? How was I responsible for that!? Now you're just blaming me for things that don't even have anything to do with me!_'

'_It obviously didn't notice us until you started talking!_'

'_I asked one simple question and—_'

There was a loud screech, and another beam of ice sped towards us. Taylor let out a powerful Flamethrower, but this ice was nothing like that delibird's Ice Beam. This one was not even fazed by the ninetales's flames. There was nothing we could do to stop it. But in the second it took for the ice to reach me, I still couldn't accept that this was how we were all going to be defeated.

And in the next second, when the ice had still not hit me, I knew that I had been right. I looked around for some explanation as to why I was still safe, and when I looked down, I saw the snow far below me. My body, feeling light and displaced, was floating a few metres in the air. Floating beside me I saw Taylor, Cam, and Leon, each one of them with a faint purple glow around their bodies.

I looked down again, and saw Elsie standing below us, her eyes and the gem on her forehead glowing. However, despite the calm, meditative expression on her face, her body was not in such good shape. It was coated in frost, and she was frozen still, like a statue of ice.

'_Elsie!_' Taylor cried.

'_Did she . . . save us?_' Cam asked slowly.

'That insolent wannabe!' spat Leon. 'I don't need any help, especially from some human-loving pet!'

'_She just sacrificed herself for you!_' Taylor shouted. '_Don't you have any respect!?_'

So _now_ he was finally beginning to see how selfish Leon was acting. Now that it was too late. Now that we'd had to wait for two of our friends to be attacked because of his stupid refusal to take any action against the charmeleon.

'Respect? What is there to respect about a pokémon who betrays her kind by allying herself with humans?'

'_What right do you have to talk about betrayal?_' I cut in. '_You're the one who abandoned your friends!_'

'Humans and pokémon can _never_ be friends! I was only using them, and they deserve it, the way humans use pokémon!'

'_If humans use pokémon, and you were using humans, doesn't that make you just as bad as them?_' I demanded. '_How does doing the same thing they do prove anything other than that you've got something in common?_'

'It proves that they're worthless!'

'_Then you're just as worthless as they are!_'

Leon's only response was to roar and shoot a beam of flames at me. I closed my eyes and let the fire spread over my body, sink into my fur and add fuel the blaze inside my body. Then I opened my eyes and glared at the charmeleon. Didn't he know by now that fire only made me stronger?

'_Kit, Taylor, look,_' Cam said quietly. I turned my attention back to my friend to see him pointing down below us. He was pointing to where Elsie's frozen form stood. A glow of energy was surrounding her body, and the ice that imprisoned her was slowly but steadily sizzling, turning to water and then to vapour. In a few more seconds, the espeon was thawed out.

'_How did she . . ._' I breathed.

'_Everybody, listen,_' said Elsie quietly. '_I think whatever is using those Ice Beams thinks that it succeeded in freezing us all. If we continue climbing the mountain, it will sense us again._'

'_Then what do you expect us to do?_' I asked. '_We can't just run away!_'

'_I can use my psychic powers to carry you up the mountain by the air currents,_' said Elsie. '_The lack of vibrations against the mountainside will hopefully mean that you'll evade detection. You'll appear to be just a part of the wind._'

'That's ridiculous!' said Leon. 'Do you really think Articuno is stupid enough to fall for that!?'

The rest of us turned to him quickly.

'_Articuno?_' I asked slowly.

'Yes, Articuno! What did you think it was, another delibird!? The only one capable of this is the titan of ice!'

I swallowed. Articuno. We'd come here thinking we were prepared for the worst. We'd run possibilities by each other about what to expect. We'd even considered the possibility that we might be up against Lugia. But that had just been speculation. Hearing from Leon, the one who seemed to know more about this than anyone, that it was Articuno behind all of this . . . I felt my heartbeat begin to race. A cold chill ran through my body.

It had been stupid to think we'd been prepared. Because nothing could have prepared us for coming face to face with a legendary pokémon.

'_All right Leon,_' said Taylor. '_It's time you tell us what you know. Why is Articuno doing this, and how are you involved?_'

'I don't have to tell you anything!'

'_You do, if you ever want to be let down from there,_' said Elsie.

Leon snarled. We all knew that he could probably defeat Elsie in a battle, but this wasn't a battle. She had him psychically trapped, a condition that he couldn't just fight his way out of.

'You'll run out of energy soon enough,' said Leon. 'You can't hold me here forever.'

'_So you're just gonna let Articuno get away with this?_' I demanded. '_Look at all of those fire pokémon it's hurt. I know you're too selfish to care about human-trained pokémon, but those are _wild_ pokémon we're talking about. Don't you even care what it's doing to them?_'

'If they're fire-types who fall to ice attacks, they're weak. And that means they deserve whatever they get. Don't go thinking I feel sorry for them just because they're fire-types. If they can't even stand up to ice, they're a disgrace to the type.'

'You _would have been frozen by that Ice Beam if Elsie hadn't saved you!_' I said.

'That's ridiculous! I don't need that human-loving mutt's help! I didn't need it then and I don't need it now!'

With that, he turned and blasted a Flamethrower down below, aiming at where Ralts and Connor were frozen still. As the fire connected with their ice prisons, the frost began to melt away. Within a few seconds, the ice encasing the pokémon was gone. Ralts fell to the ground, and she and Connor stood shivering in a puddle of water.

'You!' Leon shouted. 'Get me down!'

Ralts, still shivering, lifted her large round head to look at Leon.

'_But . . . I . . ._' she said.

'I gave you an order! Now do it!'

'_I'm so . . . cold . . . I can't . . . concentrate . . ._'

'Then maybe this'll warm you up!' Leon gathered his flames in his jaws.

'_Ralts, look out!_' Elsie cried. As she turned to the little psychic pokémon, I felt the weight in my body return. I cried out as I plummeted to the ground, landing on the snow with a thump. I only had a second to be grateful for the soft landing the thick snow provided, because my thoughts were then cut off by a massive shriek. A sharp, frosty wind blew over me as the snowflakes from the summit began swirling towards us in a whirring snowstorm. The force of the blizzard blew me back, and I crashed back down on the ground a few metres back. I struggled to raise my head against the howling wind, and squinted through the white tempest to make out a cerulean figure rising from the summit.

In another second, the snowflakes began to disperse, and then the creature swept overhead in a whir of blue and white. I turned behind me to see a bird-like creature hovering in the air. Covered in thick, icy blue feathers, with thin legs tipped by talons that shone like knives. A long ribbon of a tail, blowing in the wind as the air around it turned to ice and dropped as snow and hail. Large wings with the transparency of ice, distorting the afternoon sun that struggled to seep through them. And two bloodshot red eyes, staring down at us, through us, into us.

'_Farewell, doomed travellers,_' a chilly voice blew on the wind, '_for I am the last sight you will see._'


	34. Chapter 33: The Rainbow Wing

Thanks very much to everyone who sent feedback about chapter 32. I'm really grateful that a lot of you are still reading this story and that you were supportive about its return, rather than yelling and screaming at me for taking so long to update!

**Chapter Thirty-Three - The Rainbow Wing**

'_Farewell, doomed travellers, for I am the last sight you will see._'

I had never felt so cold before. When I'd been hit by the delibird's attack, I had thought I'd felt the heat drain from my body. But that had been nothing like this. This was a chill that was so cold I couldn't even feel my body at all. So icy that I didn't even have the strength to shiver, only to stand still, petrified, frozen.

'Where is Moltres!?'

My attention was so fixed on the frosty creature hovering above us that I barely heard Leon's snarling voice. Articuno turned her crimson eyes to my right.

'_Why do you speak the language of humans?_'

The legendary bird didn't even move her beak as she spoke. Her words were not spoken through the screeches I had heard her emit as she rose from the mountain's summit. Rather, they were carried on the wind, a chilling breeze that swept the creature's message over us.

'Because wild pokémon have lost their pride so much that the only authority they listen to are humans. Now tell me where that fire bird is!'

'I _do not listen to the authority of humans, nor a pokémon who himself has lost so much pride that he is reduced to imitating them. But you will all be with your precious Moltres soon enough, when you all suffer the same fate she did._'

Articuno raised her icy wings, and her red eyes began to glow. This was it. We were going to take the full force of a legendary pokémon's attack. After all our research, all our training, this was what it came down to. No mortal pokémon like us could ever hope to survive a hit from Articuno. Taylor had been right: type advantage meant nothing in a battle of this scale.

Ho-Oh. Moltres. If the legendary fire birds hadn't been able to survive against beasts such as this, there was no way Articuno could be defeated by a young, inexperienced vulpix who didn't even understand what it meant to be a pokémon. It had been foolish of me to have hope. It had been stupid of me to have faith. The only thing left to do was to take the attack and let it end as quickly as possible.

Several seconds passed, but I did not feel the onslaught of the ice titan's assault. All I felt was my mind begin to become dizzy, my thoughts begin to spin and tumble around, images run through my head: an Ember attack, a leap, a dodge, a Flamethrower attack, a retreat, but not a surrender. Why was I seeing these things? Was the chill of the snow beneath my feet getting to my head? Was the frozen wind that swept around me causing me to sink into unconsciousness?

Two glowing, red eyes appeared in the darkness of my mind.

Articuno.

Is she . . . reading my mind?

I opened my eyes, but all I saw was white. A gale of snow, a squall of hail, a tempest of frost, all joining together in one massive hurricane of ice. There was no fire left inside me. There was no heat around me. This was what it felt like to be in an absolute void of warmth. There was nothing. No, there was less than nothing.

I saw the glowing eyes through the white storm, and the wind blew two words into my mind:

_Sheer. Cold._

* * *

I awoke to find myself lying, shivering, on a plate of ice. Snowflakes fell slowly through the chilly air. As I looked around, I saw that I was in a small chamber, surrounded by a crystalline wall of ice. Below me, I could make out a faint orange glow through the thick glacial sheet I lay on. Above me, I could only see the white thickness of snowfall.

I pushed myself onto my paws, and a shiver ran through me as my pads connected with the frozen surface. I glanced around, and saw the others also climbing to their feet: Cam, Elsie, Taylor, Connor, Leon, and Ralts. What had happened to us? Where were we?

I ran my eyes over the chamber once more. The floor was littered with icy stalagmites, some just tiny spikes, others large columns. There was one that stood out from all the rest: in the centre of the room, a huge frozen diamond rose from the ground. But it was not merely a block of transparent crevices. There were colours inside of it. Yellows, oranges, and reds.

I took a step closer, and I thought my heart stopped. It was not just a palette of colours. They formed a shape. A figure. A pokémon.

Another large bird creature, this one with charred yellow plumage. The darker oranges and reds of its wings and tail feathers were battered. Its long neck was craned up to the sky. Its dark eyes cold and wide, its long beak opened as if screeching.

'_Is that . . ._' I breathed. I couldn't even bear to say the name, because that would be admitting that I knew what that creature was. That would be accepting that the one we were looking for, our hope, our shining light of guidance, had been extinguished.

'_Yeah . . ._' said Taylor, his voice filled with as much disbelief as mine.

My eyes felt wet as I gazed upon the frozen figure of Moltres. Here we were, trapped in a cell of ice, and the one we'd been counting on to set things right was trapped with us. A tear ran down my face, and as it hit the hard floor below, it solidified into its own frozen spike. And the more I stared at the fallen fire bird, the more I began to feel as if the stalagmites surrounding us were the tears of the rest of the innocents who had suffered at the claws of Articuno.

But were we just going to add our own tears to Articuno's collection of statues? Were we going to just give up and let that ice bird defeat all these fire-types?

No. The fact that Moltres was trapped with us didn't have to mean that we had no hope. Quite the opposite. It could mean that we had all the hope we needed right there with us.

'_We've got to free her,_' I said.

'_For once you've said something right,_' said Taylor. '_Kid, Elsie, Connor, Leon, I know it's cold in here, but if we use all our fire attacks together, we might be able to melt that ice._'

'_Elsie?_' I asked, and turned to the espeon. '_You can use fire attacks?_'

Elsie lowered her head, eyeing me meekly. '_I . . ._'

'_Weren't you paying any attention when she freed herself from that Ice Beam before?_' Taylor asked.

I paused, remembering how the ice around Elsie's body had melted. Everything had been too chaotic to think about it too much, but she had somehow thawed herself out on her own.

'_But I never saw any fire,_' I said. '_It was like the ice just melted under her energy or something._'

'_It's a special move I know,_' said Elsie quietly. '_It's called Hidden Power._'

'_Hidden Power doesn't have a set type,_' said Taylor. '_It—_'

'_I _know_ about Hidden Power,_' I said, recalling the experiments I'd done with the move on the battle simulations at school. '_Its type and power are determined by the pokémon's genes._'

Elsie sighed. '_Yes, that's correct. Although I can't create physical fire, I can create energy that has the traits of fire. I know it's not the same, but . . . it's the best I can do as an espeon._'

'_Don't be sad, Elsie,_' said Cam. '_I can't even use any move that relates to fire. I think it's impressive that you can use a move of such a different type._'

Elsie smiled softly, but I could see that her heart wasn't in it. '_Thank you Cam._'

'_Leon,_' said Taylor. We all turned to the charmeleon. '_We still don't know what you're up to, but it's obvious you were trying to find Moltres too. So help us free her._'

Leon scoffed. 'Help you? You idiots just don't get it, do you?'

'_We know you don't want to help us, Leon,_' said Cam, '_but please, it might be the only chance we have of stopping Articuno._'

'Who cares about Articuno? It doesn't concern me if she wants to freeze a volcano and the pathetic fire pokémon who can't even withstand an Ice Beam. The only reason I came here was for _that_.'

He pointed a claw at the block of ice that held the mighty Moltres immobile.

'And what you thick-headed wannabes don't get,' he continued, 'is that I'm the only one here who can break that ice.'

He raised his other paw, and when I saw what he was holding, I belatedly remembered the one advantage he'd had over us all this time. For between two of his claws was a single, glowing, multi-coloured feather. The Rainbow Wing.

'_What are you gonna do with Moltres?_' I demanded, my heart racing.

'That's none of your business,' said Leon. He turned to where Ralts was sitting nearby. 'You! Keep that so-called "prince" under control!'

'_Y—yes,_' said Ralts. She held her hands out, and her eyes began to glow. A similar glow appeared around Connor's body, and the white vulpix went stiff.

The charmeleon stepped towards the frozen figure of Moltres, holding the Rainbow Wing. I was torn about what to do. Perhaps Leon was right that he was the only one who could break that ice; it was so thick that I wasn't sure even our combined fire attacks could melt it. So maybe it was best if we let him free her. But his refusal to tell us why he had even come looking for Moltres in the first place bothered me. My instinct told me that as a fire-type, he would surely value and respect Moltres, and not be here to do anything to hurt her. But he'd already made it clear that he didn't align himself with others just because of being the same type. He was so selfish that he really could be trying to do something awful to Moltres, or at least to use her power for himself rather than for Ho-Oh. And could I really stand here and watch him do that?

'_You'd better not be planning anything awful with her!_' I said.

'It's none of your business what I do with her,' said Leon. 'I'm the one with the Rainbow Wing and I'll do what I like with it. Just watch!'

He held the feather in front of him, pulled his head back, opened his jaws, and spat out a ball of fire.

The flames instantly set the Rainbow Wing alight.

'_No!_' I cried.

'_The Rainbow Wing!_' Cam exclaimed.

My eyes grew wide and my heart began to race. How could we have been so stupid? In all this time, we'd had so many opportunities to try to get the Rainbow Wing off Leon. But we'd just ignored them, we'd stood back and waited like that idiot Taylor had suggested, just because we were a little uncertain about what the charmeleon's intentions were. Well, look where that uncertainty had led us. Look what that waiting around had caused. We'd been trying to protect the Rainbow Wing all this time, and all we'd succeeded in doing was letting it burn to ash.

To ash?

But wasn't it from ashes that all of this had started?

For as long as I could remember, I'd had a recurring memory of seeing Ho-Oh flying in a dark sky. The bird would turn her long neck and look down at me, then nod, and a piece of ash would fall from her wings. I would reach out for the ash, but no matter how many times I'd tried to remember past that, the memory would always stop before I could touch it.

The day I had first become a vulpix, it seemed I had finally reached the end of the memory, when I had seen Ho-Oh for real, and held her ashes in my hands. But everything had felt wrong. I was sure that wasn't the real conclusion to my memory. No, there was still something missing. It was still incomplete.

Connor and his vulpix pack had told us the legend of Soulfire and Spiritfox, the vulpix and ninetales who had become human when they had touched the Sacred Ash. But their newfound powers as humans had only meant that they had betrayed their families and friends, destroyed their homes and enslaved their kind. Whether I believed the legend or not, I could at least see that it had a moral.

This ash that kept returning to my life, this "Sacred Ash", just what was it? Was it a good thing, or a bad thing? I had always felt that I could trust fire, that it was the one thing that made sense to me. But it seemed that in all my encounters with ash, the product of fire, I had only met chaos, disaster and despair.

I watched as Leon, holding the newly burnt pile of ash in his paws, walked over to the ice that encased Moltres. He raised his arms, and pressed the ash to the frozen diamond.

From within her cage, Moltres's feathers began to glow. Leon stepped back, and the ash was gone. The ice began to melt from the inside, first releasing the fire bird from her stiff position. Her beak closed, then opened again as she let out a cough. Her wings fluttered, then fell down by her side. Her legs collapsed beneath her.

And then, as the ice continued to melt, the legendary pokémon was finally free, and she fell to the icy floor with a crash. Her eyes closed, and she was still.


	35. Chapter 34: Flames of Hope

**Chapter Thirty-Four – Flames of Hope**

'_Mol . . . tres . . ._' I took a step towards where the legendary fire pokémon lay still on the frozen surface.

'Wake up!' Leon shouted. 'You think I came all this way to find you passed out!? Get on your feet, you so-called legend!'

'_Leon!_' said Taylor. '_How could you speak to the legendary fire bird like that, especially when she's in this state? She needs our help!_'

'How can a legend need any help!? She's the one who's meant to be so great! She's the one who's meant to have so much power! If this is what we call a legend, this world is even more screwed up than I thought!'

'_Magma . . ._'

I blinked. That voice . . . no, not a voice at all. What I had heard just that had been the sound of sizzling flames. Flames that had almost died out, but as they crackled weakly, I could hear their message. They were speaking to me, to all of us.

'_Magma . . ._'

'_Is that . . . Moltres talking?_' Cam asked slowly.

My eyes were fixed on the fire bird. Although her body was still, there were still small movements on her feathers. On the plumage of her head, wings and tail, the last remnants of moribund flames burned. And it was through the flickering of these flames that I could hear what she was saying to us.

'_Magma . . ._'

'_Team Magma?_' Taylor asked slowly.

'_No,_' I said. The ninetales turned and looked at me, as if unimpressed that I had so quickly dismissed his theory of what the legendary pokémon had meant. '_The magma of the volcano._'

I gestured down below us. Below the ice floor, there remained that distinct orange glow. It was hard to see through the distortions caused by the thick frozen surface, but the more I squinted and stared at it, the more I thought I could see something bubbling, smouldering.

People had said that Mount Cinder was a dormant volcano. But they were wrong. This volcano was active, and that was exactly why Moltres had come here.

'_That's what I read when we were researching legendary pokémon,_' I said. '_It's believed that when Moltres is injured, she flies to a volcano to heal herself in the magma._'

'Hmph,' said Leon. 'What would human research know about Moltres?'

'_Well it got us here, didn't it!_' I said, frustrated at his continued selfishness in front of the injured Moltres. '_And it may be the only way we can help her! We've got to melt through this ice and get her into the magma!_'

'_All right,_' said Taylor slowly. I blinked; even in the desperation of the situation, I was shocked that he was agreeing with me. But then, I knew that it was exactly _because_ of the desperate situation that he was agreeing with me. He knew that Moltres was in trouble, and unlike Leon, Taylor valued the great fire bird enough to forget his petty arguments for the sake of helping her. '_Let's all concentrate our fire attacks on the area around Moltres._'

'That's ridiculous!' said Leon. 'If that stupid bird is a so-called legend, it doesn't need magma to heal itself! And if it really needs the help of a bunch of weaklings to fight against Articuno, it doesn't deserve to call itself a legend!' He turned and pointed a claw at Connor. 'You! Is this really the legend that blesses the kings of fire-types? Is this deflated pile of feathers really what we're supposed to look up to as some kind of god!?'

'_I told you . . ._' said Connor, his body remaining still by Ralts's psychic hold. '_My pack doesn't know anything about Moltres. We don't even have a true "king" . . . the pack chooses its leaders, not passes the title down through blood._'

'That's a lie! Nobody in their right mind would choose a pathetic wimp like you as their leader!'

'_I never thought I was a good choice for their prince either . . . but I love my pack, and I have a responsibility to do my best to live up to their expectations._'

'_We don't have time for your arguments, Leon!_' said Taylor, before the charmeleon could retaliate. '_Moltres needs our help! Ralts! Let Connor go! It's Leon you should be restraining!_'

'_I . . ._' Ralts bit her paw uncertainly, glancing from Connor to Leon.

'Don't even think about it!' said Leon, and Ralts drew back.

'_Ralts!_' I said. '_Why are you listening to him? I know you're not a fire-type, but surely you can see that Moltres is in trouble! Are you just gonna let her die!?_'

'_Taylor and Kit are right, Ralts,_' said Elsie. '_You don't need to listen to him. It's one thing to work together, but no pokémon should let themselves become a mind slave to either a human or another pokémon. You have a right to make your own decisions, and you don't have to do what he tells you._'

'You do so have to listen to me, unless you wanna feel a Slash or a Flamethrower!'

Ralts cringed.

'_Those threats should mean nothing to you!_' I said. '_Ralts, we've seen your psychic powers! If you can put all of us to sleep with one Hypnosis, I know you can easily restrain Leon! Don't let him control you!_'

Ralts's eyes suddenly grew wide from under her large green cap. A slight glow emanated from her body.

'N—no . . . you . . . can't . . . do . . . th . . .'

There was a thump as Leon fell to the floor, fast asleep. Ralts hung her head.

'_I'm sorry Leon,_' she said.

Connor stepped towards the small psychic pokémon and nudged her with his snout.

'_I know it's hard, but you did the right thing,_' he said. '_Thank you for releasing me, Ralts. Acting on your own for the good of all is truly honourable._'

'_I . . . will that bird be OK?_' Ralts asked timidly.

'_I hope so,_' said Taylor. '_Come on, we've stalled long enough. Let's melt this ice._'

I couldn't help glaring at him. Even though we'd been putting our arguments aside to focus on Moltres, he still thought he was the leader. I'd been the one who'd realised that Moltres needed to get into the magma to heal herself, and I'd been the one who'd suggested we melt the ice, yet there he was acting like he was in charge of the operation.

Then I saw the fallen body of Moltres, her chest slowly moving as she drew in desperate breaths, the flames on her feathers steadily waning. I ignored Taylor's attitude, and he and I walked towards the legendary pokémon. Elsie and Connor approached from their own sides, and the four of us stood around Moltres in a square. Without another word, we all began using our attacks on the ice: Taylor's Flamethrower beam, my Ember fireballs, Elsie's Hidden Power energy. Connor, who I had never seen battle before, breathed small blue flames that I recognised from my battle research as Will-O-Wisp.

The thickness of the ice meant that would take a lot of heat before it melted. I fired my Ember attack continuously, but my flames only began getting smaller and smaller. The longer I stood there shivering in this ice cavern, the harder it became to gather the heat inside of me. I felt my energy slipping away as the frost continued to grow colder. Before long I would surely be too weak to even stand, let alone to continue kindling my fire attacks.

I glanced around at the others. Taylor was standing firm, breathing his Flamethrower attack in one constant stream of fire. Elsie was still, her eyes closed as she concentrated her glowing hidden energy to heat the air and melt the ice around her. And even Connor, the gentle prince who hated to battle, was consistently puffing out his small flames to fight for Moltres.

I wasn't going to give up. I had relied too many times on others to get me out of my messes because I was too weak to do anything on my own. I hadn't even been able to learn to breathe fire without the help of Katashi, some trainer who'd only wanted to use me for battle.

But that wasn't all I'd discovered while I'd been the captive of that boy. I'd learnt that I was more than I'd always thought I was. I'd realised that I was a pokémon. And as a pokémon, I knew I had unbelievable powers, if I only figured out how to master them. It wasn't just legendary pokémon who had amazing abilities. Even the smallest, the most common of pokémon could utilise incredible skills. And now, a legendary pokémon was relying on the help of those small, common pokémon as her only chance of survival. And I was not going to let her down.

I'll save you, Moltres. And I'll save you, Ho-Oh. I don't know if any of this is my fault, or if it was all out of my control. But I'll do everything I can to put it in my control now, and set things right.

With my renewed passion sparking my internal flame to life, I took a deep breath, pushed my head down towards the icy floor, and launched my fire attack with all my might.

The flames that appeared were not the small balls of fire I'd mastered while training with Katashi. They were a longer, fiercer attack, projected forward in a flowing beam of scorching heat.

But I didn't have time to gloat about teaching myself Flamethrower. Because my personal goals were not important anymore. I had to concentrate on using my abilities for the good of all. Just like my friends had, and just like Ralts had. I had long been frustrated at Leon's selfishness, but now I saw that what I really had to do was look past my own selfishness to help Moltres.

Within a few more minutes, the glacial sheet below Moltres began weakening, sinking down. Just a little bit more . . . I narrowed my eyes, focussing my heat on the flames that were pouring from my jaws. Then I felt the pressure at the end of the Flamethrower begin to ease up, as if slipping away.

'_Thank . . . you . . ._' I heard distant flames whispering.

I looked ahead to see that our attacks had successfully melted the four corners of the square around Moltres, and the sides were steadily melting away as well. Then, as the last section of the ice sunk, the sheet upon which the bird lay fell.

I stared down into the gaping hole we had created, and saw the ice plunge into the magma below, sizzling and evaporating instantly. Then, the great fire bird herself hit the bubbling mass. I watched the magma seep over her feathers, pulling her down into its heat, till she was gone.

I fell down on the ice, puffing. As fuelled up as I had been while using my new Flamethrower attack, it had still taken a lot of energy out of me. I shut my eyes and breathed in the heat that was rising up from the magma below. The warmth felt refreshing. If this was what the air heated by the magma did for my own body, imagine how soothing the magma sauna itself must be for the legendary fire bird. I smiled, feeling my body relax.

'_Now what happens?_' I heard Cam's voice as he came over and peered over the edge of the hole. '_Is that magma really going to heal her like Eustacia does?_'

'_Definitely,_' said Taylor. '_Even its heat is giving our bodies strength. I'm sure being in that magma will heal Moltres completely._'

I swallowed, eyeing him. That was almost exactly what I'd just been thinking. As infuriating as it had been arguing with him all the time, it felt so uncomfortable for him to be thinking like me. . . . Or was I the one who was thinking like him?

I didn't have time to consider it too much longer, because a distinct rumbling sound suddenly arose, and the cavern around us began to shake.

Was the volcano . . . erupting? I felt my heart racing. It was one thing for the magma to have healing properties for the legendary fire bird, but a volcanic eruption was something completely different. Surely none of us could survive that, even us fire-types.

The ice coating the volcano's walls began to melt, the stalagmites on the floor sizzled into pools of water, and before I knew what was happening, a crack ran through the ice below us, and split it in two.

We all cried out as we fell towards the bubbling heat below. This couldn't be it . . . could it? This couldn't be how it ended. We had tried so hard, come so far, done so much, only to be finally defeated by fire, the one ally we'd been able to rely on all this time?

There was a triumphant screech, and my body jolted. I felt something wrap around my body, and suddenly I wasn't falling anymore. I was flying back up to the surface. I looked around quickly, and saw that I was being carried in huge grey talons. Beside me, holding onto the same claws, were Cam, Ralts, and Elsie. And opposite us, an identical set of talons, holding Connor, Taylor, and a charmeleon who didn't look very pleased to have just been snapped awake.

Then I looked above us, and I saw that the talons were attached to the legs of one large, orange and yellow bird. Flames burning wildly on her head, wings and tail, she looked down at us and smiled with her crimson beak.

'_Hold on, my friends,_' Moltres spoke through her sizzling fire. '_Our flames of hope are not extinguished yet._'


	36. Chapter 35: Sunset

**Chapter Thirty-Five – Sunset**

Riding on the talons of the rejuvenated Moltres, we soared through the ice and the snowflakes out into the fresh air, the heat of the sun. As I looked at the icy mountain below us, I no longer felt cold with fear. I knew that the bird who had carried us here would carry all those frozen pokémon to safety, would carry this world back into its natural balance.

But then I heard a screech, and I saw another great bird flying towards us, her translucent wings blurring the rays of the sun behind him. Then I knew that although we had regained our hope and our strength, the battle was not yet over.

'_Coming back here was the last mistake you'll make,_' Articuno said as she soared towards us. '_You would have been better off freezing to death slowly!_'

She shot an Ice Beam in our direction, but Moltres ducked and dodged the attack.

'_Hold on everyone,_' she said, and began gliding down the mountain. Every now and then, she would beat her wings, and embers would fall from them. I watched as the small sparks of fire fell to the icy ground below. As they connected with the frozen statues of the fire pokémon, the ice sizzled and began to melt.

Hope burned brightly in my heart. So this was the power of a legendary pokémon.

Moltres continued down Mount Cinder, swerving to each side as Articuno shot constant beams of ice at us. When she reached the base of the mountain, the great fire bird lowered herself to the ground, her talons landing in the soft snow right in front of the police barriers.

'_Everyone, climb off,_' she said, as the humans at the mountain base began running around, crying out, and snapping photographs. I obediently moved away from her talons, standing in the snow. The others did the same . . . except for Leon.

'I'm not going anywhere!' he snarled. 'I didn't come all this way for nothing! You've got some answering to do!'

'_The time is not right for talking,_' said Moltres. She shook her foot, and the charmeleon was knocked to the ground. Then Moltres spread her wings and took flight once more, just as Articuno blasted an Ice Beam in her direction. The end of the beam connected with her tail feathers, and froze them solid. Moltres shivered for a moment, then flapped her wings furiously and flew on.

'_Look what you did, Leon!_' I said. '_If you hadn't stalled her like that, she wouldn't have been hit! If Articuno defeats her again it's gonna be all your fault!_'

'See if I care what happens to that stuck-up buzzard!' said Leon, and kicked at the ground with a foot. Then he turned to Connor. 'You! Call her back! She'll listen to a so-called prince!'

'_Why do you want to call her back?_' Connor asked. '_She's out there fighting to protect the whole world!_'

'And that's just like a legendary pokémon, isn't it?' Leon spat. 'All they care about is saving the world. They only leap into action when the whole planet's in danger, so they can show off their special powers and be heroes. That's pathetic! If they were _real_ heroes, they'd be using their powers every day to solve all the little problems the common pokémon face. But no, they think they're too _good_ for that!'

I stared at the charmeleon. I wasn't sure what to make of that. Hearing him insult legendary pokémon got my blood boiling, and I wanted to shout at him about his continued lack of respect. But at the same time, I thought I'd noticed something in his insults that I'd never heard in the charmeleon's words in all the time I'd known him: compassion for the weak.

This whole ordeal was making my head spin. I was going through too many new experiences on too many different levels. Trying to understand the unfathomable power Articuno must wield to freeze a volcano and all the fire-types who lived there. Straining to believe that I had really met – and revived – the legendary fire bird Moltres. Struggling to accept that the fate of the world truly did rest on the outcome of those two creatures' battle.

But in amongst all that, I was having to deal with my perceptions of those around me being warped out of shape. I had felt sorry for Adrian and Rose being trapped by Articuno. Taylor and I had been agreeing about some things instead of instinctively bickering. And now, I was even wondering if there was more to Leon's bitter and nasty attitude.

'What is that stupid bird doing!?' the charmeleon suddenly cried. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked back up the mountain. I saw Moltres hovering beside Team Magma's frozen helicopter, breathing a stream of fire down upon it. 'Leave them there! Let them freeze!'

I narrowed my eyes. Surely I must have imagined the compassion in Leon's words earlier. If this was how he treated the ones who'd been working alongside him all this time, there was no way he had any respect for common pokémon.

But Moltres's actions were out of his control anyway. Within a few seconds, the ice around Team Magma's helicopter had melted away. The machine instantly began plummeting to the ground. Moltres grabbed the helicopter's blades in her talons and started to carry it away. But I could see that the machine's weight was a lot for even a legendary pokémon to bear, and she was slowing down.

'_Showing benevolence towards humans will only bring you closer to defeat,_' said Articuno, and fired a massive Ice Beam at Moltres. The fire bird turned to dodge the attack, but with the burden of Team Magma's helicopter in her talons, she wasn't quick enough. She screeched as the icicles slammed into her back and spread over her feathers.

'_Moltres!_' I cried.

The bird flapped her flaming wings fiercely, descending slowly. Articuno raised her wings and narrowed her eyes, and they began to glow. That same fierce red glow that had pierced my own mind just before I'd been overwhelmed by the absolute zero of her icy attack.

'_Moltres, look out!_' I shouted, running towards the fire bird. '_She's going to use Sheer Cold! You have to escape while you can! You have to . . . to . . ._'

I knew what she had to do to escape. She had to drop the helicopter that was weighing her down, and steer clear with renewed freedom of movement.

But could I really tell her to do that? She was still probably a hundred metres above ground. If she dropped the helicopter from that height, the people inside would surely not survive the fall.

Adrian, Rose and their pokémon had caused me nothing but trouble since the day I'd met them. They had hurt me, tormented me, tried to catch me and threatened to conduct experiments on me if they succeeded. They had made my life a constant nightmare during both sleep and wake.

But that didn't mean they deserved to die.

I drew in a sharp breath. Moltres could save herself and let Team Magma perish. Or she could save Team Magma and leave herself in the direct line of Articuno's attack. Which was the more honourable decision: to sacrifice four living creatures to save the world, or to sacrifice herself to save four living creatures?

There was no answer to that question.

Moltres continued to lower the helicopter to the ground. Just as she had almost set it down safely, a flurry of white swept from Articuno's wings towards the legendary fire pokémon.

'_Moltres!_' I sprinted onwards, but I knew there was nothing I could do. Even if I could somehow reach Moltres, I had no way of stopping Articuno's attack.

And so I could only stare in horror as the frosty winds swept around the fire bird, and then began to solidify around her, encasing her in ice.

There was a loud crash as the helicopter fell to the snow and rolled down a few metres, then came to a stop.

And then Moltres herself dropped to the snow, shivering, the colour drained from her plumage, the flames on her feathers extinguished. Several icicles covered her body, not totally imprisoning her like the giant frozen diamond she had been trapped in earlier, but nonetheless enough to render her powerless. She struggled to get to her feet, but only flailed and collapsed.

In a few more seconds, I was only a few metres away from Moltres. I could now see clearly the frost on the bird's dull feathers, her heavy eyes, her open beak gasping for air.

Now we were even worse off than we had been when we were trapped in the volcano. At least then, we had been able to get Moltres into the magma. This time, there was no way we could heal her. There was no way a bunch of small, low-level pokémon like us could carry a legendary bird back up the mountain to the magma.

But that couldn't mean it was over already. It couldn't. There had to be something more we could do.

Tears in my eyes, I threw my head forward and breathed a Flamethrower at Moltres. Come on Moltres, please, get up. I know we can't get you to the magma to heal you, but can't our fire help you . . . somehow? Please, Moltres.

I saw another Flamethrower appear next to me. I didn't have to turn my head to know who it was. I recognised the flames as Taylor's.

'_You should have stayed in the beautiful igloo I made for you,_' Articuno's chilly voice made me shiver. '_There's nothing you can do to help her. You'll both suffer the same fate she did._'

I could hear crinkling sound of ice forming above me, but I ignored it. I had to stay focussed on Moltres. I knew I was about to be hit by an attack from the legendary ice bird. I knew the horrible coldness it would bring. But what happened to me didn't matter. Moltres was the only one who could do anything to stop Articuno, and if we had to suffer to save her, then sobeit.

In a split second, the air around me went cold, and a beam of ice slammed into my back, knocking me to the ground. As I fell onto the snow, I felt its coldness seep into me, dousing the flames in my body. I shivered. It was so cold that I couldn't even feel my paws anymore. All I could feel was the frost around me.

'_You two . . ._' I heard a soft, crackling voice, and I rolled my eyes up to see tiny flames simmering on Moltres's wings. '_You must be Kit and Taylor . . . I should have realised earlier . . ._'

I opened my eyes wide. Moltres knew our names? I tried to push myself to my feet, but when I felt snow between my fingers, I looked down quickly. My fingers. I was a human again. I glanced beside me to see that Taylor, too, had returned to his human form. I swallowed, and looked back at where Moltres lay.

'_All this time, I thought you were relying on me . . . but I should have been relying on you_,' said Moltres.

'What do you mean?' I gasped, leaping to my feet. 'You're a legendary pokémon! How could we possibly do anything you can't!?'

'_Because you were chosen by Ho-Oh._'

I gulped. I had known all along that Ho-Oh had had something to do with all of the strange events that had been going on in my life recently. But to think that we were actually chosen by her? What could Ho-Oh possibly see in me and Taylor to choose us? How could she really believe that we could do anything against Articuno when even Moltres couldn't?

'Tell us, Moltres,' said Taylor. 'What do we have to do? How can we help you?'

'_I . . . don't think I can be of any more use,_' said Moltres. '_But there is still hope. You need . . . to find . . . Entei._'

'_That's enough out of you,_' said Articuno. '_Time to send you back where you won't get in the way._'

Suddenly, a cold wind blew over Moltres, and she began rising into the air. But she was not taking flight of her own accord. Rather, she was being pulled, limp, as if being drawn towards Articuno like a magnet.

'How do we find Entei?' I called desperately.

'_The . . . Sun . . . Stone . . ._'

'The Sun Stone? What's that? Where do we find it? You have to tell us, Moltres!'

'Get out of the way, you stupid kids!'

Somebody knocked into me, and I stumbled back a few steps. When I regained my balance, I saw Adrian and Rose standing in front of us, Poochyena and Numel at their feet.

'What are you doing?' Taylor demanded. 'You shouldn't be getting involved in this!'

'We're already far more involved in this than you seem to get,' said Rose. Then she reaised her voice. 'Numel! Use Ember!'

Her pokémon gulped. '_But . . . I . . ._'

'Poochyena!' said Adrian. 'Before it gets too high! Jump on it and use Bite!'

Poochyena turned around to look at her trainer. '_Are . . . you sure about this, Adrian? Moltres just saved our lives . . ._' She looked down at the snow.

'What are you doing, Poochyena!? Attack!'

'_You do not have evil hearts . . ._' said Moltres. I thought I saw a weak smile on her beak. But then her eyes closed, and one last ember fell from her wings before her fire died out.

I bit my lip, watching as the ember floated down through the cold air. What could we possibly do without Moltres? She had told us we could do more than she could, but how? We didn't even know where to begin looking for Entei.

The ember continued to drift down, till it landed, not on the snow, but on the snout of Numel. The dopey pokémon blinked, then sneezed.

'_What was that?_' he asked. '_I feel kind of . . ._'

Suddenly he opened his eyes wide, and stood up firmly.

'What's wrong, Numel?' Rose asked. 'What did that bird do to you!?'

Numel snorted smoke through his nostrils, scraped the ground with his hooves, and sparks began spurting from the hump on his back.

'Rose, I think he's . . .' Adrian's voice sounded fearful.

Then Numel's body began to glow, emitting a light so bright I could barely make out his features. But I could still see his silhouette as it began to morph out of shape: growing larger, his hump slitting into two . . .

And then the light began to fade, and the figure I saw before me was no longer Numel, but a larger, red creature, with two volcano-shaped humps on his back. He let out a roar, and fire began spilling from his humps.

'You . . . you . . . evolved!' Rose cried. 'Yes! Finally! You might actually be able to do something useful now! Come on Num—Camerupt! Stop that bird before it gets away!'

'H—hang on Rose,' said Adrian. 'You shouldn't get so excited. Sometimes when pokémon evolve, they—'

Camerupt roared again, and began charging straight ahead, flames erupting from the humps on his back and sizzling onto the snow as he ran.

'No, you idiot!' Rose shouted. 'Don't just run off! It's in the _air_, not on the snow! Come back here and get Moltres!'

'Poochyena, please!' said Adrian. 'It's up to you! You're the only one left to help!'

'_But . . . she saved us, Adrian . . . and she made Numel evolve . . ._' said Poochyena quietly. '_I just . . ._'

Adrian heaved a sigh. 'All right. I was hoping it wouldn't come down to this, but I guess it has. If we can't battle it, this is our only option.'

He reached into his pocket and took out a tiny sphere. He pushed a button on it, and it grew to its larger size, enough to fill his hand. It was a ball, white on the bottom and purple on the top, with two pink circles and a small white letter "M" written on it.

'Are you crazy!?' Rose demanded. 'We've gotta save that for Ho-Oh!'

'Sorry Rose,' said Adrian. 'I have to do this. There's no other way to get Moltres.'

'Then forget about Moltres! A Moltres in the hand is _not_ worth a Ho-Oh in the bush, all right! You can't use that on this pokémon! We'll be fired!'

'I don't care if I'm fired. I'm only here for Moltres.'

'What!?'

Adrian didn't say another word. Instead, he leant back, swung his arm, and then lurched forward, throwing the small purple-and-white ball at where Moltres was being steadily pulled into the sky.

Did he really expect to catch a legendary pokémon in a pokéball? She may have been weak, but surely it couldn't really be as easy as that?

It looked for a moment that Moltres was too high for the ball to reach her, but then it connected with the tip of her tail feathers. The ball opened, and emitted a glowing red energy, which spread instantly over the legendary bird. I gaped as Moltres's physical form began to fade to red, and was sucked into the ball. The purple lid snapped shut, and the ball fell to the ground. It all happened so fast that I could barely believe what I was seeing.

Adrian ran to where the ball had landed. I had seen a few documentaries about trainers on TV, and whenever it showed them catching a pokémon, the ball always shook when it shut, as if the creature trapped inside was struggling to break free. But this ball lay deathly still in the snow. Did Moltres have no strength left to fight, or was this ball's energy simply too overwhelming? Either way, it just didn't seem right that a legendary pokémon could be captured so easily.

Adrian picked up the pokéball, and when he turned around, I saw a smile on his face that made me quiver. It was not an evil smile, the kind you expected to see on a criminal's face when his master plan was succeeding. It was a genuinely proud, satisfied, and almost childlike smile. And that seemed even worse, because it made me realise that despite what Rose had said, Team Magma really had no idea what they were getting involved in. He hadn't just captured a legendary pokémon like so many trainers had dreamed of. He had taken one of the few lights of hope that remained in this world. He had brought Articuno and Lugia's victory one step closer.

'I did it, Leon!' Adrian ran past me to where Leon was standing a few metres back. 'I got Moltr—'

'What do I care!?' Leon demanded, and slashed at the pokéball, knocking it out of the man's hand.

Even behind his dark visor, I could see Adrian's expression fall. 'But . . . that's what you wanted . . . isn't it?'

'Not if that's what Moltres is really like, a pathetic weakling who . . .'

The charmeleon trailed off and looked around him. In a second, I found my own eyes darting around as well. Because all around us, light was beginning to fade. The mountain had already lost most of its colour and warmth from the snow and frost. But now the light itself was fading away, as if sunset was coming in all too quickly.

Sunset? I looked up to the sky, hoping to see the pinks and oranges that painted the sky at sunset. But instead, all I saw were black clouds. I had seen those clouds before. That day, at school, when the world around me had been cold, but I had been overcome by the fire burning inside me. The day I had become a vulpix.

But I had also seen them before, hadn't I? Sometime long ago, in a distant memory. But was it in the human memories of my childhood, or in the vulpix memories I had recently discovered? I couldn't even tell anymore. All I knew was that each time I had seen those clouds, only disaster had followed.

I looked at the sun itself, and I saw a dark sphere sliding up over the glowing orb, blocking out its light. When it reached about halfway, it stopped.

I turned away from the sky and darted my eyes around again. The whole area was coated in a soft twilight, not quite pitch black, but dark enough to be unnatural at this hour. And everybody was still. Team Magma, my friends, the fire pokémon who Moltres had thawed from their frozen prisons, the humans at the base of the mountain. Even Camerupt had stopped his rampage to stare up at the sun . . . or what was left of it.

'Where is it?' I heard Taylor's voice demand. He was running over to where Adrian and Leon were gaping lifelessly at the sky.

'Wh . . . what?' Adrian asked.

'Where's the master ball? Where's Moltres?'

Adrian and Leon suddenly snapped to life, spinning around and looking in every direction. Then Adrian got down on his hands and knees and began shovelling through the snow.

'Leon, where did it land when you knocked it?' he asked hurriedly, crawling around and sweeping the snow away as quickly as he could.

'It was just there a second ago!' said Leon. 'How could you be so stupid to lose it in that short time!?'

'Look what you've done!' Rose shouted. 'You waste our only master ball, and then you _lose_ it!? How could you be so stupid!? I swear, if I get fired over this—'

'Who cares about your job!?' Taylor yelled. 'Moltres is gone! Don't you know what you've done!? The sun being blocked out like that isn't just a coincidence! It means Lugia's halfway there! If we lose Entei as well, it's all over!'

'It can't have gone too far!' said Adrian, still crawling around desperately. 'It must be here somewhere! It must be!'

'I think I know where it is,' I said.

Everyone turned to me.

'Then enlighten us,' said Rose, putting her hands on her hips.

'Well, I don't know _where_ it is,' I said. 'But I think I know who has it. Or has no one else noticed that Articuno's missing too?'

They all looked up to the sky. I heaved a sigh. So much for being chosen by Ho-Oh. We had come to Mount Cinder to try to find Moltres in hope that she could help us put a stop to this chaos. But all we had done was help the enemy. Previously, Articuno had only been able to trap Moltres in a prison of ice. It was an effective cage, but as we'd shown, it could be broken by a few concentrated fire attacks.

But now, thanks to Team Magma, and thanks to us being unable to do anything about it, Moltres was trapped in the one prison that was perfect for keeping a pokémon, legendary or not: a pokéball.


	37. Chapter 36: Twilight

**Chapter Thirty-Six – Twilight**

We had been standing in the snow, defeated, for a few minutes before I became aware of a distant sound in the middle of the vast silence of the dark mountain. It sounded like the beeping of a machine.

'What's that?' I asked.

There was a pause as the others listened for the sound, and then Rose spoke.

'The intercom!' she gasped. 'It's the boss!' She scowled and turned to where Adrian was sitting slumped in the snow. 'So, shall we tell him about how you ruined everything?'

'Wait, Rose,' said Adrian, getting to his feet. 'I know this is my fault. But let's hear what he has to say about this first. He knows more about this than anyone. Maybe he knows a way we can fix things.'

'A way _you_ can fix things, you mean! You're the one who lost our only master ball! Don't you know how hard it was for him to get one of those from Maxie!? We're ruined because of you!'

'I don't think we should be discussing this in front of _them_,' said Adrian, gesturing to us. Rose paused, eyeing us.

'Fine,' she muttered. She held out her pokéball to where Camerupt was standing several metres up the mountain. 'Camerupt, return.'

'Poochyena, return.' Adrian recalled his pokémon, then turned to Leon. 'Leon . . . you coming?'

The charmeleon folded his arms and looked away. 'Why should I?'

'He's even worse than you are!' said Rose. 'First he _steals_ our Rainbow Wing, then he walks straight past us when we're trapped by that idiot bird, and now you're asking him to tag along again!? Both of you can leave this team forever for all I care!'

With that, she turned and stormed away in the direction of their crashed helicopter.

'Wait, Rose!' Adrian hurried after her.

I watched as the two Team Magma agents approached their helicopter where it lay on its side in the snow. Adrian may have stopped Rose from revealing too much in front of us, but the criminals had let one thing slip: that their boss knew more about this than anyone. Moltres had only given us one tiny hint about what to do next, and without more information than that, we really had no idea where to go from here. We needed to know more about what was going on if we were ever to find a way to put a stop to it.

So once Adrian and Rose had awkwardly climbed into their helicopter from above, I went and ran over to it. I crouched down beside it and strained my ears to listen. I saw the others padding towards me, and hoped they wouldn't be too noisy and make Team Magma realise we were listening.

The beeping noise stopped, and I heard Rose's voice.

'Hey boss,' she said.

'Finally!' A husky voice was barely audible over crackling static. 'What took you so long? Never mind. You've obviously succeeded for once, so celebrations are in order.'

I heard Adrian clear his throat. 'How do you know?'

'My eyesight might not be the best anymore, but I'm certainly not blind. I can see the beautiful eclipse out there. Now all we need is the beast.'

'So what are your orders?' Adrian asked.

'Come back to headquarters. We need to locate the ruins of the lab. But we'll discuss that when you get here. I want Moltres in my hands before we make our next move.'

'Yeah, about that—' Rose started.

'The helicopter's totalled,' Adrian cut her off. 'I apologise for our neglect, but it was caught in the battle between Articuno and Moltres. We're lucky the intercom still works, but in terms of getting back to base . . .'

'You've got Ralts, don't you?' the husky voice demanded.

There was a pause.

'Y—yeah,' said Adrian.

'Then use your head for once! Get Ralts to teleport you here! And make it quick!'

'Boss, it—' Rose was once again cut short as the static suddenly stopped. She sighed irritably. 'Are you that much of a wimp that you wouldn't even tell him how you screwed up?'

'I don't think it's a good idea to tell him.'

'You're just scared of what he'll do to you! _I_ had nothing to do with your idiotic decision, why should I have to put up with this!? I'm calling him back to tell him.'

'No, Rose! Please, just think about this. You know what he's like. You may not have been the one who threw the master ball, but you were still right there next to me when I did it. You didn't _stop_ me from doing it. He'll go just as ballistic at you.'

'You're just saying that to cover yourself.'

'No I'm not. I mean it. We have to get Moltres back before we go to him.'

'And how do you expect us to do that!?'

'By finding Entei, of course. We'll convince Entei that we're on its side, and it'll help us get Moltres back.'

I glanced around at the others, and I could tell that they were all thinking the same thing: we couldn't let Adrian and Rose get to Entei before us. But that was all we'd really learned from eavesdropping on Team Magma's conversation. We still had no idea where to begin looking for the legendary pokémon.

'_What are we going to do, Kit?_' Cam whispered, but he was only speaking my own thoughts, and I had no answer to his question.

'I don't think there's any more we can do here,' said Taylor. 'Let's go back to my grandma and talk to her about what's happened.'

'Why don't we wait till Adrian and Rose leave, then use their intercom to talk to their boss?' I said. 'They said he knows more about this than anyone.'

'And why in the world would he tell _us_, kid? He didn't even want to discuss it with them over the intercom, he's hardly gonna go telling total strangers what his master plan is.'

'So we just let this opportunity slip by!?' I demanded. 'The one thing we need more than anything is information, and—'

'Keep your voice down!' Taylor hissed, putting his hand over my mouth. I shoved him away, but it was too late anyway. Adrian and Rose had climbed out of their helicopter, and leapt down onto the snow in front of us.

'What are you still doing here?' Adrian asked. 'Kids should be in bed after dark.'

'We're trying to figure out what we can do to set things right now that _you've_ helped Articuno get one step ahead of us!' I shouted.

'You guys don't have to make this worse,' said Taylor, getting to his feet and turning to Adrian and Rose. 'Why are you trying to catch Moltres and Entei anyway? Do you even _know_ what your boss is up to with all of this?'

'That's none of your business,' said Rose. 'Ralts! You're coming with us!'

I glanced at where Ralts was huddled in the snow beside Connor. She looked up at Rose and took a step back.

'_Do I have to go back with them?_' she asked quietly.

'_Of course you don't,_' said Connor. '_You made the right choice helping us earlier, and there's no reason you need to go back to those villains._'

'Ralts, what are you waiting for?' said Adrian. 'Come on!'

'_I don't want to,_' said Ralts, hanging her head. '_I don't want to help you mean people anymore. I like being with these new people. They make me feel happy._'

'What's it saying?' Rose demanded. 'Why isn't it obeying us?'

'She said she wants to stay with us,' I said. 'So leave her alone.'

'You're lying,' said Rose. 'Ralts are known for being loyal to their trainers no matter what.'

'_You're not my trainer!_' said Ralts.

'You're not her trainer,' I translated.

'This is ridiculous,' said Rose. 'Why didn't he give it to us in a pokéball? Did he really think it would just follow us around happily?' She stormed towards Ralts, bending over and reaching her arms out. 'Come here, you little—'

'_No!_' cried Ralts, raising her head and revealing her glowing eyes. Rose could only take one more step, before she fell flat on her face in the snow, fast asleep.

'Rose!' said Adrian, but before he could say any more, his eyes drooped, and he too fell to the ground.

'You're pretty good with that Hyposis attack,' said Taylor.

Ralts blushed. '_Really?_'

Elsie nodded. '_You have very strong psychic abilities. You definitely made the right choice deciding not to use those powers to help Team Magma anymore._'

A small smile curved on Ralts's face. '_Thank you._' Then she paused, glancing around. '_I wonder where Leon went._'

I looked around too. Although Leon's fiery tail flame should have been easy to spot in this darkness, he was nowhere to be seen.

'Don't worry about him,' I said. 'You can come with us instead, Ralts.'

Ralts smiled again, and nodded. '_I, um . . . but my name isn't Ralts. That's just what the humans called me because they didn't understand me._'

'Oh,' I said. 'What's your real name, then?'

'_Rashmi._'

'OK Rashmi, you can come with us.'

We all began heading down the mountain. I was disappointed that we'd left behind the opportunity to talk to Team Magma's boss, but at the same time, I could see Taylor had had a point that he wouldn't tell us anything anyway. Maybe the best idea was to speak to his grandmother, but she'd been researching Moltres and Entei for the past month; it wasn't like she would have suddenly come up with something new while we were on Mount Cinder.

I couldn't help but feel that this whole journey to Mount Cinder had been a waste of time. Sure, a few good things had happened. We'd gotten Connor back, and we'd made a new ally in Ralts. I'd managed to learn Flamethrower. But these things were all on such a small scale in comparison to the other things that had happened. The most powerful ally we'd found yet, the legendary Moltres, was now not only trapped, but missing, and we hadn't even managed to make a scratch on Articuno.

And that was only the beginning. That dark sphere in the sky, the blanket of shadows that had coated the whole area . . . I'd really thought we'd had a chance of doing something in this crisis, but what possible power did _we_ have in a catastrophe that was clearly affecting the whole planet?

'You kids! What on Earth are you doing up there!?'

I looked up, and saw a series of torchlights at the base of the mountain, as a group of people stared at us. Most of them appeared to be police officers, but others were just regular citizens, many of them with cameras. I narrowed my eyes. Did they think this was some kind of tourist attraction? The whole world could be in danger, and all they wanted was to get a good shot of the chaos for their photo albums?

One of the police officers ducked under the barrier and ran over to us.

'How did you get up there?' he demanded. 'We've been watching these barriers this whole time, and we made sure no one get through! You weren't in that helicopter, were you? Are you with Team Magma?'

'No!' I exclaimed. 'We just . . . um . . .'

'I told you!' a voice from the crowd shouted. 'They're the pokémon that Moltres was carrying! I saw them transform!'

I opened my eyes wide, my heart racing as I stared down at the young man waving a camera with a long lens on it.

'Sir, this is your last warning,' said one of the police officers. 'If you don't stop shouting nonsense like that, we'll have to take you into custody. This is an official police investigation, and we—'

'It's not nonsense, I'm telling you! And I've got the shots right here to prove it! Just you wait till I get this film developed! Then you'll believe me! I saw them transforming, and you'll all see it too!'

Taylor and I glanced at each other. This couldn't be real. After all this time managing to keep our abilities a secret, some bystander with a camera was going to expose us? I had to say something, anything.

'Maybe the mixture of fire and ice created some kind of optical illusion,' I said.

'It wasn't an illusion! I saw you transform, and I'm gonna prove it to everyone!'

'Ignore him,' said the officer in front of us. 'Just tell me how you got past these barriers.'

'We didn't,' I said. 'We came to hike up the mountain this morning, and we've only just come back down. We were already on the mountain when you put the barriers up.'

'In that case, you're key witnesses,' said the officer. 'We'll need you to come to the police station to give statements about what you've seen.'

'I'll give you a statement! I saw those two kids transform from pokémon! I'm telling you, I've got photos to prove it!'

'Why didn't we set up road blocks to keep the maniacs away?' the officer asked rhetorically, shaking his head. 'Come on kids, we'll take you back to the station and get you warmed up. You're not in trouble, we just need you to make a statement about what you witnessed on the mountain.'

'Why are the police investigating this?' Taylor asked. 'What have legendary pokémon got to do with the police?'

'We're not investigating legendary pokémon, we're investigating Team Magma.'

'But you were guarding the area before Team Magma even got here,' said Taylor.

'How do you know what time we got here if you were up the mountain all morning?'

Taylor went silent. I ground my teeth. Well done, genius.

'Kids, come on, we need to talk about this down at the station,' said the officer.

'Sorry, we just want to go home,' said Taylor.

'We'll call your parents when we get there. It really doesn't take long to give a statement. You'll be home before you know it.'

'Sorry, we don't want to.'

'Excuse me?'

'You said yourself we're not in trouble. We're not under arrest, so you can't make us come with you. Being a witness is voluntary.'

'Look, I know you're probably scared by what's going on, and you just want to get home. But any information you can provide will be of use to our investigation. I'll admit it: we don't know what's going on either. We need all the help we can get, and if you know even the slightest thing about what happened this afternoon, we need to have that information in an official statement. Just think, you could help us find a solution to a huge mystery.'

I scoffed. 'This is stupid! You just said you don't know what's going on, and you're not _gonna_ find out what's going on just by standing around and asking questions!' I pointed up to the where the sun was half-blocked by a dark sphere. 'You think the police are gonna be able to explain _that_ by putting together witness accounts!?'

'Kid,' said Taylor quietly. 'Maybe it's better we just go with them.'

'What!? How can you . . .'

He gestured down past the police barriers. There, the man who claimed to have seen our transformation was climbing into the back of a police car with an officer. I gulped. If he really did have photos that could prove we had transformed from pokémon, we had to make sure we knew who had access to them. We couldn't let the wrong people find out about our abilities.

'We'll come if our pokémon can come too,' said Taylor. The officer looked down at where Cam, Elsie, Connor and Rashmi were waiting behind us.

'They're your pokémon?' he asked. 'They're not wild?'

'Yeah,' said Taylor. 'So we've gotta bring them with us.'

'Fine, then put them in their pokéballs.'

'They don't have pokéballs. They'll need to sit in the back seat with us.'

The officer paused, then sighed. 'Fine. If you keep them under control. It's worth getting a couple of vulpix hairs in the back seat to get this information. Come on.'

We followed the officer down to where the police cars were parked. He opened the back door of one, and we all climbed into the back seat. We had to wait for a few minutes for the police officers to get organised. While we were waiting, a police van with bars on its back window showed up. Two well-built officers stepped out, took pokéballs from their belts, and released an arcanine each. The two large dog pokémon sat up firmly.

'Sir,' said one of the newly-arrived officers. 'The K-9 squad is here to apprehend the Team Magma agents.'

Before we could see what happened next, an officer climbed into the driver seat of our car and started it up. As we began to drive away, I sighed and leant against the window. I didn't know if going to the police station was the right thing to do. But at least if we, the photographer and Team Magma were all in the same place, we'd know where we stood. I knew that the police really had no idea what was going on, but maybe they were right that we had to put all our information sources together if we were to figure out where to go next.


	38. Chapter 37: Evidence

**Chapter Thirty-Seven – Evidence**

Taylor and I sat on chairs in the Spectrum City Police Department's waiting room, the pokémon sitting on the floor in front of us. The police had informed us that since I was under sixteen, they couldn't interview me without a guardian present, so they had called my parents. Now I regretted coming here. I'd been at Mount Cinder because I'd disobeyed my parents telling me I was grounded, and I knew they'd never let me hear the end of it.

Although Taylor was seventeen, he had told the police that he would also prefer to have a guardian with him, and had asked the police to phone his grandmother. So we had both been sitting there, silent, for twenty-three minutes. I knew the exact time because I'd been staring at the clock. 4:34. It was still only the afternoon, but all the lights in the station were on, and through the window, I could see how dark it was outside.

'Why are we waiting here?' I finally broke the silence. 'We're meant to be finding Entei. Who knows what Articuno's doing with Moltres right now.'

'I don't know,' said Taylor quietly. I glanced at him. He was slouched over, staring at the ground. Elsie was leaning against his leg, her eyes closed.

I sighed. Normally we'd be arguing about what we should be doing next. But now, not only did we not have the energy to fight, we didn't even know where to begin. Arguing with him had always made life so frustrating, but now, I wished we could argue about something. At least when we argued, it was because we both had conflicting ideas. Now, neither of us had any ideas. We were all out of inspiration. The twilight that had settled in around us had darkened our own hearts, and we could no longer see any way out of our situation.

'Russell!'

I looked up to see a young woman running into the station. I recognised her as the girl I'd met at Taylor's house only that morning: Narelle.

'Wh—what are you doing here, Narelle?' Taylor asked.

'That's what I'm here to ask _you_! Where's Elanor?'

'I told them to call her!'

'Well they called _us_, and your dad is _not_ happy!'

'Who's Elanor?' I asked.

'My grandmother, you idiot,' said Taylor.

'Oh.' I looked away. That had sure made me look stupid. But my parents had always insisted on me being polite to adults, so I'd only ever known my neighbour as "Mrs Taylor". I turned back to Taylor and Narelle. 'Wait, aren't you brother and sister?'

'_Step_-brother and sister,' said Taylor.

'Yet I seem to care more about his grandmother than he does!' said Narelle. 'Where did you leave her, Russell!?'

'I told them to call her mobile!' Taylor got to his feet. 'I'm gonna get someone to find out what's going on.'

'This is why you should have your own mobile!' Narelle said as she followed him away. 'But you're so anti-social you don't—'

'I'm not arguing about this now!'

Their voices trailed away as they walked down the hallway to find a police officer to talk to. I didn't know whether I was relieved or worried that he'd left me to face my parents on my own. But it was only a few seconds before I was to find out.

'Katherine!'

I cringed at the sound of my mother's voice, and looked up meekly to see her rushing towards me. At least she was alone. Her work was closer to the police station than my father's was, so maybe it would just be her for now, and that was a good thing. My mother was strict enough, but my father was even worse. Maybe it wouldn't be _quite_ as bad if I didn't have to deal with both of them at once.

Yeah, that's it. It's gonna be fine, Kit. If you're not outnumbered by them, you've got a better chance of standing up for yourself. Just stay calm and confident, and you'll be able to get through this without too much yelling and screaming.

My mother reached me, and I took a deep breath. OK, you can do this. It's not gonna be so bad. Just tell her—

I was jolted to my feet as my mother grabbed my by the jacket, pulled me into her arms, and hugged me tightly.

'Katherine, are you all right!?' Her voice was croaky. 'You had me so worried!'

I heard her sniff, and she squeezed me tighter. I gulped. All this time I'd been freaking out about what I'd do when my parents arrived and yelled at me. After seeing how angry Taylor's step-sister had been, I was sure that my strict parents, whose orders I had directly disobeyed, would be even worse.

Whenever my parents had forbidden me from doing something, and I'd complained about it, they'd told me that it was for my own good, that they were doing it because they cared about me, and that I'd understand when I had kids. I'd always yelled back at them that they were the ones who didn't understand, and that when I had kids, I'd let them do what they wanted. I just didn't see how it made any sense that, if they really cared about me, they'd place so many restrictions on me.

But then I thought about the one time I'd met Taylor's father. He had been rude and threatening. He had called his son worthless and told him he'd kill a vulpix in front of him to teach him a lesson. When Narelle had arrived, she had said that his father wasn't happy about hearing we were at the police station. He hadn't even bothered to show up and see if Taylor was safe.

Yet here was my mother, hugging me and crying and asking if I was all right, when I'd only gotten myself in trouble after defying her.

How could I think my parents didn't care about me when I compared my family to his?

I felt tears in my own eyes, and I put my arms around my mother, hugging her back.

'I'm sorry,' I sniffed.

Mum heaved a sigh, and put her hand on my head.

'Kit, I just . . . I don't understand why you've been doing such strange things lately. I know you're a teenager and you want your freedom, but . . . you can't just run off like that! And why would you go to that mountain, of all places!? Not only was it obviously dangerous with it freezing over like that, but the news said there were criminals on the loose there! Don't you have any idea how much danger you could have been in!?'

I pulled away, looking down at the floor. 'I know it sounds like I was just running into danger, but . . . but it's complicated. I . . .' I sighed. I really didn't know what I could tell her to justify my actions, at least without telling her the truth.

But after all this time trying to hide my secret, and all the trouble that had gotten me into, what if it was time to tell my parents the truth? That man who'd taken photos of us may have had enough evidence to reveal it anyway, and wasn't it better for them to hear it from me?

'It's just that, I've gotten caught up in something,' I said.

Mum stared at me with wide eyes. 'Don't tell me you've done something awful, Kit. The police only said you were a witness, not—'

'It's not like that, jeez. I've been trying to _stop_ people doing something awful.'

'Who? Those criminals? They shouldn't be your concern, that's up to the police to take care of!'

'It's not something the police can—'

'Oh, you're here?'

We turned to see a police officer coming down the hall towards us.

'You're Kit's mother, is that right?' he asked.

'That's right,' said Mum. 'Linda Tanguy.'

'Pleased to meet you Mrs Tanguy,' said the officer. 'I'm Officer Jeremy.'

He held his hand out to my mother, and she shook it.

'If you'd like to come with us now, we can do the interview. Oh, but Kit, you can't leave your pokémon there. Come and we'll put them in a cage.'

'A cage!?' I exclaimed. 'No way! You're not locking them in cages!'

'What are you talking about, Kit?' Mum asked. She turned to Jeremy. 'They're not her pokémon. We don't have any pets.'

Jeremy folded his arms. 'She and her friend told us they were theirs. They acted obedient to them so we assumed they were telling the truth. Young lady, do you realise it's an offence to take pokémon from the wild without a trainer's licence?'

'They're not mine, they're his,' I said, telling him the only thing that would give me an immediate solution.

'All four of them belong to the other boy?'

'Yeah. He lives on a farm, so he has lots of pokémon.'

'All right, but he shouldn't have left you with them. I'm sorry but we're gonna have to put them in a cage while we do the interview.'

'You're _not_ putting them in cages! You said yourself they're obedient. They'll come and sit with us in the interview room, they'll be fine.'

'Miss Tanguy, I don't think you quite understand police procedures, and that's fine, I'm sure you've never even been to a police station before. But we can't have pokémon in the interview room, and that's final. I know it might sound cruel to put them in cages, but trust me, the police force treats pokémon well. They're the same cages our own growlithes and arcanines use. They're very spacious and they have access to food and water. And it'll only be for about half an hour anyway. Come on.'

He began to walk down the hallway, gesturing for us to follow.

'_It's all right,_' said Elsie, stepping towards me. '_We'll stay there if it's not for too long. We need a rest anyway._'

'_Yeah,_' said Rashmi. '_This human seems nice enough . . ._'

I sighed. 'Fine.'

I turned and followed Jeremy down the hall. Elsie, Rashmi, Connor and Cam followed. Mum eyed them before looking at me.

'Kit, what are you doing with all those pokémon?' she asked quietly. 'Whose are they? That Taylor boy's?'

'Um,' I said. I knew she'd find out I'd been with Taylor soon enough anyway. 'Yeah.'

'You've been spending a lot of time with him lately. I thought you said you hated him.'

I shrugged. 'We're not exactly friends. We just got caught up in this together so we've gotta put up with each other.'

Mum sighed. 'Oh Kit, I really wish you'd talk to me more about what's going on in your life. You really shouldn't be getting caught up in things that the police should be handling.'

'The police shouldn't be handling it. It's out of their control.'

'If it's out of their control then why do you think _you_ should be dealing with it!? These people are professionals, they know what they're doing!'

'I don't know _why_ I should be dealing with it, I just know I have to.'

We soon reached the kennels where the police kept their growlithes and arcanines. There were only two growlithes in the cages, and the rest were empty. Maybe they were all out investigating this mystery.

Officer Jeremy took some keys off his belt and opened the padlock to one of the cages.

'Will they be fine in one cage or do they need to be separated?' he asked.

I glanced down at Elsie, who nodded.

'I think they'd rather be together,' I said.

'All right,' said Jeremy, opening the door to the cage. 'As you can see, the cages are quite big, so they'll have plenty of room. In you come, guys.' The pokémon walked into the cage and sat down. 'Wow, they are very obedient. Your friend must be a great trainer.'

'No, the pokémon are just co-operative,' I said. 'That's why you don't have to put them in cages.'

'Well, you might be right, but it's a rule that only police, witnesses and guardians can be in the interview room. We can't just go changing the rules.' Jeremy shut the door of the cage and did up the padlock. 'Now come on.'

I gave my friends a sympathetic look as we turned away from the cage. No matter how big the police made their cages, no matter whether they gave them access to food and water, no pokémon deserved to be locked up like that. After my experience being trapped in a pokéball by Katashi, I hadn't been able to look at the way humans treated pokémon in the same way again. The friendships I'd formed with pokémon – as well as the rivalries I'd formed with others – had shown me that they were just as intelligent as humans, if not more. So what gave us the right to enforce such power over them, to lock them up like they were criminals and restrict their freedom?

I knew it wasn't that we didn't care about them. I'd learnt from trainers like Nasim who I'd met only a few hours earlier, that humans could care quite deeply for their pokémon's safety. So maybe that was exactly why we restricted them. Maybe humans treated pokémon just like my parents had always treated me. Maybe we just wanted to protect them because we were afraid of anything bad happening to them if they were free to do whatever they wanted.

But was that a good enough reason? Did caring about someone mean that you had to do whatever you could to protect them, or did it mean that you had to let them be free to make their own choices, even if it meant putting them in danger?

That was something I was going to have to consider very quickly. Because as I walked into the interview room with Officer Jeremy and my mother, I knew that I was going to have to decide whether to keep protecting myself, or whether it was time to tell the truth.

'This is Officer Jeremy Erkins commencing witness interview for case number one four six three zero one,' Officer Jeremy spoke clearly as the tape recordeder span beside him. 'Witness, could you please state your name?'

'Kit Tanguy,' I said.

'Your full name.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Katherine Tanguy. But I'd rather be called Kit.'

'Understood. With us we also have a guardian. Could you please state your name and your relationship to the witness?'

'Linda Tanguy. I'm Katherine's mother.'

'Thank you. Now Kit, I understand you were hiking on Mount Cinder with your friend Russell Taylor this morning. Is this correct?'

'No.'

'No? You weren't hiking on Mount Cinder?'

'Not that part. He's not my friend.'

Jeremy let out a small sigh. 'I see. Then what is your relationship with him?'

'Acquaintance.'

'A bit more detail?'

'He's my neighbour's grandson.'

'They used to be best friends when they were little,' said Mum.

'No we didn't!'

'You did, Kit! I don't know why you always deny it.'

'You just make that up to annoy me! We were never friends. Don't you think I'd remember something like that?'

'All right guys, calm down,' said Jeremy. 'This isn't that relevant anyway. The important part is what you were doing on Mount Cinder. Kit, is it true or is it not true that you were hiking on Mount Cinder this morning?'

I paused, eyeing the tape recorder. It had been one thing to lie to my parents all the times I'd had to make something up to hide my secret. And it had been one thing to lie to Jeremy when he'd first confronted us on Mount Cinder. But to lie while I was in an official police interview, my words being recorded as evidence for their investigation? That was something completely different.

'Please tell the truth, Kit,' said Jeremy. 'We need your help. Were you or were you not hiking on Mount Cinder this morning?'

'I wasn't.'

'Then could you please tell me what you were doing this morning?'

I hesitated. 'Entering a pokémon tournament.'

'What!?' Mum exclaimed.

'And is this the same tournament that the Team Magma agent won?'

'Yes.'

'Kit, what on earth were you doing a at a pokémon tournament?' Mum asked. 'You don't even have any pokémon!'

'Kit?' Jeremy asked. 'Could you tell me how you entered the tournament without having any pokémon?'

'Taylor and I entered with the pokémon you just locked up.'

'And how did you enter without a trainer's licence?'

'I . . . I don't know.'

'You don't know?'

'I'm not the one on trial here! I'm a witness about Team Magma!'

Jeremy paused, then nodded. 'All right, we'll address that issue later. I didn't realise you were also at the tournament. This could be even more valuable information than what happened at Mount Cinder. Can you tell us what happened at the tournament with the Team Magma agent?'

'We lost to him. Because . . .' I sighed. 'Because his charmeleon was too strong for me—I mean, for my vulpix.'

I eyed the tape again, and gulped. Had that been a lie? Or had that been just twisting the truth?

'I thought you said it was Russell Taylor's vulpix,' said Jeremy.

I looked at him. He must have thought I was talking about Connor. I wasn't sure what to say to that. If I told him it hadn't been Taylor's vulpix, we could be charged for taking wild pokémon without a licence. But if I told him it was Taylor's vulpix, I'd be lying to the police. Why had I ever agreed to come here?

But wouldn't I be lying either way? Because I wasn't talking about Connor. I was talking about myself. I bit my lip.

'Um, well . . . it's not really anyone's vulpix.'

'So it was wild?'

'No! It just . . . doesn't belong to anyone. Why do your stupid laws say it has to have an owner?'

'It's part of our pokémon protection laws. People can only keep pokémon if they have a trainer licence, or if they've got them registered as pets. If there are rules about who can keep pokémon, it significantly reduces the number of people who treat them cruelly.'

'But what if they don't want to be protected? Is it true that people take wild pokémon from other areas to release them in the National Park?'

'Yes. The rangers do that to protect our native species, because trainers can't catch pokémon in the National Park.'

'But what if the pokémon don't _want_ to go to the National Park? What if they've got friends in another area and you just take them away?'

'Pokémon don't really have "friends" like humans do.'

'What!? How would _you_ know?'

Jeremy sighed. 'Kit, can we try to stay on topic, please? We'll discuss the ownership of those pokémon later. For now, could you please continue to tell me what happened with the Team Magma agent at the tournament?'

I ground my teeth. It was probably better we focussed on Team Magma anyway, before I ended up getting myself accused of anything.

'Once he got the Rainbow Wing, he got picked up by his partner in a helicopter,' I said.

'Did you get a good look at either the man or his partner?'

'Um, I know who they are, if that's what you're asking. Their names are Adrian and Rose. I don't know their last names, but I know that much.'

'How do you know their names?'

'From hearing them talk to each other. They never seemed like they were trying to hide their names.'

'I see. Now, this part is very important. I'm going to show you two photos, and I'd like you to tell me if you recognise the people in them.' Jeremy opened the folder he had beside him and took out a plastic sleeve containing two photographs. He placed it on the table in front of me. 'For the benefit of the tape, I am showing the witness photographs of the two suspects we currently have detained.'

I peered down to look at the photos of a young man and woman. At a first glance, my heart sank, because I didn't recognise them, and I became scared that the police had arrested the wrong people. But then I looked closer, and I realised why they were unfamiliar to me.

The reason I'd always found Adrian and Rose easy to recognise was that they always wore their ridiculous Team Magma uniforms. But the ironic part was that it was exactly these uniforms that made them so hard to recognise in any other situation. Their heavy hoods masked most of their facial features, and their dark visors only made it worse by covering their eyes. Even when I'd seen Adrian in casual clothes at the Rainbow Tournament, he had been wearing sunglasses, and so I'd never seen his whole face.

So when I saw these photos, where they were glaring at the camera with their hoods down and their visors removed, it really did take me a while to be able to tell if it was them. But I soon recognised the man as the same one I'd seen earlier that day, and after staring for a bit longer, I was sure I recognised the woman as well.

'Yeah,' I said. 'That's them. That's Adrian and Rose.'

Even after confirming their identity for Officer Jeremy, I couldn't help but continue to stare at the photos. Seeing Team Magma as their real selves was confronting, because it made them look like normal people. What's more, they looked younger than I'd expected. I'd always thought of them as adults, but without their dark visors, I could see that they looked only a couple of years older than Taylor. They probably weren't long out of high school. I didn't understand what could have driven them to take up lives of crime.

'So this is the man who won the Rainbow Tournament, and his accomplice who flew the helicopter?'

'Yeah.'

'All right. Thank you. Now can you tell me what you did after that?'

'Mrs Taylor—you know, Russell Taylor's grandmother—she was just driving us around for a while, then we heard on the radio that Team Magma had gone to the Sulfur Rainforest, so we went there.'

'Why did you decide to follow criminals?'

'Because we wanted to know what they were planning to do with the Rainbow Wing.'

'Why?'

'What do you mean, "why"!? Because it's used to summon Moltres! We weren't gonna let them do anything to her!'

'But you knew the police were investigating the matter. Why did you think you had to go after Team Magma yourself?'

'I had to know for sure what they were up to.'

'You shouldn't be getting involved in police matters. But tell us what happened next.'

'We found their helicopter, but there was no one there, so we—'

'Wait a second. So you actually went into the Sulfur Rainforest?'

'Yeah.'

'How did you get past the police barriers?'

I went silent. I looked down at the table, biting my lip. Great, now I'd done it. I'd tried my best to tell the truth without giving away my secret, but how was I supposed to explain _that_?

'Kit?' Mum asked, leaning down to me. 'Kit, you didn't really go past police barriers, did you?'

I rubbed my forehead. Officer Jeremy had asked me to do an interview as a witness, but it felt like he'd been interrogating me like a suspect. I had to be careful of what I said in case I gave too much away. And didn't that mean I was thinking like a suspect too? What was I so afraid of? I hadn't done anything wrong, had I? Why did I feel like I had so much to hide?

'Kit, could you please tell me how you entered the Sulfur Rainforest?' Jeremy asked.

'No.'

'Excuse me?'

'No. I don't want to answer that question.'

'Kit!' Mum exclaimed. 'This is a serious police interview! You have to answer his questions!'

'No I don't. I'm only a witness. I don't have to say anything.'

'Leaving out details could jeopardise this investigation, Kit,' said Jeremy.

'Then I'll just have to jeopardise the investigation, 'cause I'm not answering that question.'

'Kit!' said Mum. 'If you've done something wrong, then tell him! It's better to own up to it now than to be fount out later. Please, tell the policeman how you got through the barriers.'

'Your mother's right, Kit,' said Jeremy. 'Police barriers are legally enforceable. It's illegal for a person to cross them. But if you tell us what you did, we might let you off with a caution.'

'What's the law's definition of a person?' I asked.

'What?'

'Is it illegal for a pokémon to cross a police barrier?'

'No, of course not. A pokémon can't be charged with a crime.'

'Then there's nothing you can charge me for either.'

'What do you mean?'

Before I could answer, the door was flung open, and another officer rushed into the room.

'Sir, you have to se—'

'Officer Mark! We're in the middle of an interview!' said Jeremy, then he lowered his voice. 'For the benefit of the tape, Officer Mark has entered the room.'

'I'm sorry sir, but this is important,' said the other officer. 'We've had the other witness's photos developed, and I really think you should see them!'

He slammed three photos on the table. My head started spinning when I saw them. The figures in the photos weren't very clear through the snowfall surrounding them, but I could still make out what they were. The first image depicted the backs of a vulpix and ninetales being hit by an Ice Beam.

The final image showed two teenage humans lying in the snow where the vulpix and ninetales had stood.

And the image in between showcased what could only be described as monsters: creatures with half human, half pokémon traits, as if in the middle of changing from one form to the other.


	39. Chapter 38: Showing Myself to You

**Chapter Thirty-Eight – Showing Myself to You**

'What are these supposed to be?' Officer Jeremy asked, but my head was spinning so much I could barely hear him. I dropped my elbows to the table and held my forehead, breathing heavily.

'Kit, what's wrong?' Mum asked, leaning over me.

Everything's wrong. Articuno has ruined the world, and that photographer has ruined my life. People are going to take me away and conduct experiments on me. They're going to call me a freak and a monster. I'm going to lose all my friends and family. So much for being chosen by Ho-Oh. Chosen for what? For being destined to become an outcast?

'The witness who took these photos claims that they're of Miss Tanguy here and her friend Mr Taylor transforming from a vulpix and ninetales,' said Officer Mark.

Jeremy stared at the younger officer. 'And you expect us to seriously consider something like that in a police investigation!?'

'But just look at them, sir! Even the timestamp shows they were taken in the space of two seconds. There's no way these kids could have gotten to the exact same spot as those pokémon in that short a timeframe. And besides, look at that middle one. That's just . . . freaky!'

I glanced again at the photo he was referring to, and I shivered. He was right. It was freaky. Having never seen my transformation from the outside, I was unaware of how strange it looked. But there in that photo was me. I could barely recognise myself, but I knew it was me. The body size of a small child, not either crawling or standing, but propped up on its hands and feet, on limbs that were unusually short, thick, and hairy. Behind the legs were a number of furry protrustions. The back of the head showed wild curly hair, and ears that were not only much too high up for a human, but had strange pointed tips.

'Couldn't this just be that vulpix and ninetales?' Jeremy asked. 'I know they look different to the first photo, but with the way it's snowing, and it's not in very good focus anyway, I think it could just be showing those pokémon from a strange angle.'

'But sir, you can see the children's clothing on them,' said Mark. 'But the bodies are clearly too small and animal-like to be human. Think about it. No one's doubting that those two birds were Articuno and Moltres. If we believe legendary pokémon were at Mount Cinder, why are we all doubting what these photos clearly show?'

I narrowed my eyes, looking closer at the picture. No wonder it looked so bizarre. Through the snow, I could make out the blue of my jeans and the orange of my jacket on that creature. But it also looked like there were patches where instead of clothing, there was brown fur. I glanced down at my arms and legs. My clothes had no holes in them. How could I see hair through them like that?

I swallowed, realising that this was yet another aspect of my ability that made no sense. Whenever I became a vulpix, it wasn't as if my body just shrunk inside my clothes and I had to crawl out of them. My clothes totally disappeared, and I was only covered in fur. But what was even stranger was that when I changed back into a human, I had my clothes back. I couldn't believe I'd never even wondered about this before. Maybe it was because I'd been so relieved that I'd had my clothes when I changed back, but now that I finally thought about it, surely that was impossible.

'Maybe Miss Tanguy can give us an explanation,' said Jeremy, looking over at me. 'Kit, can you tell us what's going on in this photo?'

'No.'

'Why?'

'Because I don't know.'

'But you were there, weren't you? Isn't this you in the third photo?'

'I just said I don't know what happened! I don't know anything about this! I keep getting caught up in all these crazy things and I never understand what's going on! That's why I came here: 'cause I thought you might know something about this, but you're just as clueless as I am! I wanna know the truth as much as you do, but I don't! I don't know anything!'

I took a deep breath, and saw that the two officers and my mother were staring at me, silent. After a moment, Mum put her hand on my shoulder.

'Kit,' she sighed.

'Mrs Tanguy, I think that whatever happened to your daughter on that mountain, she's clearly experiencing shock over it,' said Officer Jeremy. 'I'm sorry. She was acting confident, so I didn't realise she'd been so badly affected. I think what's best for all of us is that you take her home and make sure she gets a good night's rest, and we'll see if she's feeling well enough to talk to us tomorrow.'

'Kit, what _happened_ to you?' Mum asked.

'I really think it's best you take her home,' said Jeremy. 'She needs some rest. We'll give you a call tomorrow. Is that all right with you, Kit?'

'Whatever.' This whole investigation had been a waste of time anyway. I should have just gone home from the start.

'All right, we'll start fresh tommorw. Interview terminated.' Officer Jeremy pressed the stop button on the tape recorder, then he leant towards me. 'Kit, I know we brought you here as a witness, but if you're actually a victim, then it's even more important you tell us what happened. You don't have to be afraid of anything. Those Team Magma agents are in our custody, so there's nothing they can do to you. We're here to help you.'

'You can't help me,' I said, shaking my head.

'Yes we can. That's our job. Please, just think about this tonight. And get a good night's rest, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow if you're feeling better.'

'Bright?' I asked, and pointed to the darkness out the window. 'Have you even looked outside? You think it's gonna get bright tomorrow?'

'Of course. That's just an unexpected eclipse, that's all. It'll only last a few hours at most.'

I shook my head. There was no point trying to explain anything to him. He'd already made it obvious that he didn't have a clue what was going on, and that even if he did, he wouldn't believe it.

'Come on Kit, let's just go home,' said Mum.

I nodded. We got to our feet, and the two officers led us out. When we stepped back into the waiting room, I saw my father standing there, tapping his foot. When he heard us approaching, he spun around to face us.

'Katherine Tanguy, what do you think you've been doing!?' he demanded.

'Mr Tanguy,' said Jeremy, 'we think your daughter is experiencing shock. The best thing you can do right now is to make her feel comfortable.'

'She wouldn't be in shock if she'd stayed at home like she was told to!' said Dad. 'Kit, why did you leave the house when we told you not to? Did you think we told you to stay home for no reason? It was—'

'Yeah yeah, it was for my own good, I know, you've told me before,' I said, rolling my eyes.

'Don't talk to me like that, Katherine. Last time you did this, you got that disease from a wild pokémon. How did you think I felt getting a phone call saying you were at the police station when I thought you were safe at home?'

'Worried. I _know_. But I'm fine. Let's just go home.'

'Yes, we'll talk about this when we get home, young lady.'

* * *

When we headed out to the police car park, we saw Taylor climbing into his grandmother's car. They must have finally contacted her. His step-sister was nowhere to be seen, but I was relieved to see that Cam, Elsie, Connor and Rashmi were all in the back seat.

'What are they doing here?' Dad asked.

'Kit was with that boy when they met the police,' said Mum.

'He's turning out to be nothing but trouble. He _used_ to be a nice kid when they were little, but now . . . and why wasn't Mrs Taylor keeping an eye on you, Kit?'

'She was,' I said. 'We went there together.'

'What!?'

He stormed over to Mrs Taylor's car before she could drive away. But he only argued for a minute, because we all agreed that since we lived next door, we'd discuss the day's events when we got home. I went in my mother's car, knowing that my father would question me all the way home. At least my mother knew a little bit about the incident from the interview.

* * *

When we got to the Rawst Street apartment building, Mrs Taylor insisted we meet in her room instead of ours. Once we were inside, the reason was obvious: our four pokémon friends were sitting on the balcony. Mrs Taylor went over and opened the sliding door, letting them inside.

'What are you doing!?' Dad exclaimed. 'You can't let them in here!'

'I have to,' said Mrs Taylor. 'They're as much a part of this as Russell and Kit are. I'm willing to take the punishment if I get found out.'

'A part of what?' Dad asked. 'When is someone going to explain what's going on?'

'Let's sit down and talk about this,' said Mrs Taylor.

So we all went over and sat down on her lounges: my parents and I on one, Taylor and his grandmother on the other. The pokémon sat down on the floor between us.

'_Kit,_' said Elsie. '_We were talking about this on the way home, and we decided that it's up to you whether we tell your parents the truth. We don't know much about them, so it's up to you if you want to keep it a secret like Taylor does from his father. We can think of something to tell them instead._'

I looked at my parents. My mother looked back at me with worry, while my father was looking over at Mrs Taylor, waiting for an explanation. They had different ways of showing it, but I knew that both of them were concerned about me. As much as I hated the ways they chose to act on that concern sometimes, that didn't mean I didn't appreciate the thought.

I also knew the frustration of not knowing what was going on around me. And I still may not have understood what was happening with Articuno and Moltres, with Team Magma, or with myself, but I did know a lot more than my parents did. My parents weren't like Taylor's father. They cared about what was happening to me. It must have been awful for them to not have any idea why I'd been acting so strangely over the past few months. Was it really helping any of us to keep them in the dark like that?

What's more, ever since that day I'd been captured by Katashi, my mind had been filled with strange memories of a life I knew couldn't possibly be mine: the life of a wild vulpix, the daughter of the ninetales couple Robi and Violette. But even though those memories conflicted with all of my own memories about my human childhood with the parents who sat next to me now, they still felt so real. Maybe the only way to understand both sets of memories was to talk about them with my parents.

'I think . . . we should tell them,' I said.

'Are you sure about that, kid?' Taylor asked.

I glared at him. 'My name is _Kit_, and yes, I am sure.'

'Then maybe it's best they hear it from you,' said Mrs Taylor.

I swallowed. I knew she was right. My parents should definitely hear something as major as this from me. But when I turned back to them, I just didn't know where I should start. From the beginning, of course, but I didn't know where the beginning was. Was it that day at school when I'd seen Lugia and Ho-Oh battling? Was it the memory I'd always had of seeing Ho-Oh flying against a dark sky? Or was it further back . . . to when I was a young vulpix, playing with my best friend Taylor the ninetales?

Without knowing where to begin, there could only be one way to make them understand the situation.

'Well, Kit?' Dad asked. 'What do you have to tell us?'

'I don't have anything to tell you,' I said. Then I got to my feet. 'But I do have something to show you.'

As my parents watched, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and put a hand to my chest. I gathered the fire in my heart, till I could feel it solidifying in my hand. Then I felt my body changing, shrinking, growing warmer. When I opened my eyes, I was standing on all fours, looking at my parents through the eyes of a vulpix.

My parents were pulled back against the lounge, hugging each other, their wide eyes fixed on me. I felt my tails droop between my legs, and my ears flop down. They were afraid of me. But I suppose I should have expected that. I had also been afraid the first time it had happened to me.

'_This . . . is what I've been keeping secret from you,_' I said.

'I—I can't understand her!' said Mum, and burst into tears. Dad hugged her tighter, patting her on the back.

'She said that's what she's been keeping secret from you,' said Taylor.

'You can use this if you like,' said Mrs Taylor, removing her hearing aid and holding it out to my parents. 'It's a pokémon translator. But only one of you can use it at a time. Unfortunately we only ever completed two, and I was only allowed to keep one of them.'

'Then how does _he_ understand!?' Mum exclaimed, pointing at Taylor.

'Because I'm a pokémon too,' said Taylor.

'Do you want to show them too, Russell?' his grandmother asked.

'All right.'

Taylor stood up, and then he changed into his pokémon form as well. My parents clutched each other tighter, my mother still crying.

'This is some kind of trick, right?' said Dad. 'Where's my daughter gone?'

'_I'm right here, Dad,_' I said, and nudged him with my snout.

'That's not Kit!' said Mum. 'That's not my Katherine!'

'_It is me, Mum,_' I said. I sat up on my hind legs and reached up, putting my front paws on her knees. '_It's me._'

'Bring her back! Bring my Katherine back!'

I sighed and put my paws back on the ground. I really should have known they'd react like this. The time I'd seen my reflection when I'd first become a vulpix, I hadn't believed it was me either.

I looked at Taylor to see him sitting still on the floor. His face was calm, as if he had expected this. It was no wonder. He'd had this ability much longer than me. He'd been living with this for years. Perhaps he had also tried to show people, and had felt this same sensation of disassocation and worthlessness. Now I truly understood why Taylor had always seemed such a loner. How could anyone with this ability have friends if this was how people reacted?

'Did the police show you the photos as well?' Mrs Taylor asked.

'Y—yes,' said Mum.

'What photos?' Dad asked. 'What did they show you?'

'There was a man at Mount Cinder who took photos of Russell and Kit changing from pokémon back into humans,' said Mrs Taylor. 'But surely you don't even need to see photos. You've just seen their ability with your own eyes.'

'But it's impossible!' said Dad. 'That just . . . that just can't happen! Didn't you used to be a scientist? You _know_ this is impossible!'

'Maybe it's scientifically impossible,' said Mrs Taylor, 'but there are some things that science can't explain. You've seen it with your own eyes. Isn't that enough for you to believe it?'

'I just want her back,' said Mum, sniffing. 'I want Katherine back.'

I shut my eyes again, and concentrated. For some reason, changing back into a human had always been more difficult than changing into a vulpix. It usually only happened when I ran out of energy. But I'd been practising over the past few weeks, and I'd started to master it. I just had to let the flames in my body cool down, and my body would start to relax and fall back into shape. It took a moment, but soon I was back standing on my feet.

'Katherine!' said Mum. I sat down beside her and let her hug me. Dad also reached over and rubbed my arm.

'Kit, what happened?' he asked. 'How did you do that? Tell me what's going on!'

'I don't know,' I said. 'I don't know what's going on, and I don't know how I can do that. The only thing I know about all this is that . . . it's what Ho-Oh wants me to do. She was there when it first happened. And I think she's still here . . . somewhere. It's like she's trying to guide me, but I just . . . I just don't know why she gave me this ability or what I'm meant to do with it!'

'Kit, please,' said Dad. 'Tell us everything that's been happening to you. You shouldn't be trying to face this alone. You should have told us. We don't keep asking you where you've been going or what you've been doing because we're busybodies. We ask because—'

'Yeah yeah, I know,' I said. 'Because you care about me, and you're worried. I know.' I sighed. 'And I guess the reason I didn't tell you sooner was 'cause _I_ was worried too, about myself. But it's all right. I'll tell you now.'

So, I started to tell my parents my story. About how I'd seen Ho-Oh defeated by Lugia, and how I'd picked up her ashes and had become a vulpix. I told them about how I'd met Cam, Eustacia, and all the other wild pokémon. I explained what my relationship was with Team Magma: how they'd been causing trouble for all of us, but that I still didn't know what they were really after. I related how I'd found out about Taylor's own ability, and how together we'd met Connor and his pack. I admitted that the time we'd told them I was infected with pokérus had been a lie, and that I'd really been captured by a trainer named Katashi. I even revealed for the first time that since that day, I'd been experiencing memories of being a young vulpix . . . although I left out the part about having a ninetales friend named Taylor. Finally, with Taylor back in his human form, we all narrated to my parents the events of that day.

My parents were silent throughout. I could tell that they still didn't really believe what was happening, but it wasn't a sceptical kind of disbelief, it was the kind of disbelief you feel when you know something has to be true, but it still seems impossible. I had become very familiar with that form of disbelief since the day I'd seen Lugia and Ho-Oh battling in the sky.

'So, now do you understand?' Mrs Taylor asked. 'This is why Kit has had to do all of this. And this is why it's not over yet, and she has to help us find Entei if any of this is to be resolved.'

'N—no!' Mum finally stammered. 'I don't understand! Why should you having this—this creepy ability—mean that you have to get involved with criminal organisations and legendary pokémon and—and clearly this is out of your control! It has nothing to do with you! You should have been telling the police about it straight away and got them to handle it!'

'But Ho-Oh is clearly the key to all of this,' said Taylor. 'And Moltres herself said that Ho-Oh chose us and was relying on us. Of course, why Ho-Oh would choose the kid here, I have no idea, but—'

'Hey!' I yelled. 'What's that supposed to mean? She obviously chose me 'cause I was the best one for the job!'

'But as you can see,' said Taylor, pushing his glasses up, 'she's pretty stubborn, so I think she'd insist on tagging along even if Moltres _hadn't_ said that.'

'There's no reason you have to do this, Kit,' said Dad. 'How can a kid your age expect to find a legendary pokémon anyway? There hadn't even been any legendary sightings reported for years till those birds showed up today. Even if Entei _is_ what's needed to solve this whole problem, why should you have to try to find it? Do you even know where to begin looking?'

'Well . . .' I said. 'Not really. But Moltres said something about the Sun Stone, whatever that is.'

'Don't you even know what a sun stone is?' Taylor asked. 'It's one of the evolutionary stones, like fire stones and leaf stones.'

'Wh—what?' I asked. 'It can't be something as simple as that! You can buy evolutionary stones from department stores!'

'Sun stones are much rarer than fire stones and leaf stones, and not many stores sell them,' said Mrs Taylor. 'But I think Moltres was probably talking about something else, particularly if she called it _the_ Sun Stone. There's a theory among scientists that there were two original evolutionary stones, the Moon Stone and the Sun Stone, which fell to earth as meteors. It's from the original Moon Stone that we get the smaller moon stones, as well as water stones, leaf stones and dusk stones. And from the original Sun Stone, we get the smaller sun stones, as well as fire stones, thunder stones and dawn stones.'

'So we have to find this original Sun Stone meteor thing to find Entei?' I asked. 'Is that what she meant?'

'Possibly,' said Mrs Taylor. 'But that won't be easy. Most experts agree that the Moon Stone fell at Mount Moon in Kanto, but there really hasn't been any conclusive evidence about where the Sun Stone fell.'

'Great,' I muttered.

'When I was a scientist, some members of our organisation were researching the Sun Stone. We actually managed to find some samples of Sun Shards, which we believe are actual pieces of the original meteor.'

'Have you still got any?' I asked. 'Maybe we can use them somehow.'

'Unfortunately, no. Only a year after I retired, the lab burnt down, and all the samples the team had collected were lost.'

'W—wait a second,' said Taylor. 'The lab you worked at burnt down? I never knew that!'

'You were only young when it happened,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You probably don't remember.'

'Yeah . . . I guess,' said her grandson. 'I just . . . I don't know. Something sounds weird about that, like I've heard something about it before . . . but I don't know.'

'It was ten years ago,' said Mrs Taylor. 'You probably heard me talking about it when it happened, but you were too young to really understand.'

'No, hang on,' I cut in. 'We did hear something about it. Just a few hours ago. When the Team Magma boss was on the intercom. He told Adrian and Rose they had to find the ruins of the lab. Do you reckon . . . he was talking about _that_ lab?'

Mrs Taylor blinked. 'Team Magma . . . looking for the ruins of that lab? I don't know why they would be.'

'Isn't it obvious?' I asked. 'If you had samples of Sun Shards there, there might be some clue about where to find Entei there.'

'That's true. But the whole lab burnt to the ground. There won't be any Sun Shards left.'

'OK, maybe there won't be, but it's the only lead we've got right now,' I said. 'You remember where it was, right? Can we go there?'

'Yes, of course. It was in the Genesis Bushland.'


	40. Chapter 39: Returning to the Pack

**Chapter Thirty-Nine – Returning to the Pack**

Mrs Taylor agreed that the next morning, she would show us to the site of the lab she had once worked in. Since it was in the Genesis Bushland, we could also finally take Connor home on the way. My parents didn't agree with the idea of going to the lab, of course, and were still trying to convince me not to do it when we went back to our place and ate dinner. They kept telling me that I should let professionals handle this, and I could see sense in what they were saying: having the ability to become a pokémon really didn't seem to make me any more suitable than anyone else for trying to find Entei. But after Moltres had told me that Ho-Oh had chosen me, I was determined to see this through. Ever since I'd seen Ho-Oh burn to ashes that day, I couldn't help but feel as if this was all somehow my fault, and I had to make it up to her.

My parents also kept telling me that I should see a doctor about my ability, but I found that suggestion even worse. No doctor would be able to diagnose this. They would only send me away to have all sorts of tests conducted on me. Team Magma had once told me they wanted to take me to their lab to run tests on me, and it had given me nightmares ever since. I knew that if any doctor found out about this, I'd be all over the news being labelled as some kind of freak, while scientists from around the world would come and experiment on me. I too had once wanted a scientific explanation for my ability, but not now. Not if it meant having to go through all of that. I was sure that the only way I was going to find any answers would be to ask Ho-Oh herself.

I thought that I would be unable to sleep that night, that I'd lie awake in fear about what Articuno could be doing while we sat there and waited. But to my surprise, I fell asleep the moment I got into bed. I was so exhausted from the day's events, both physically and mentally, so it was probably for the best that I got a good rest.

* * *

When I woke up, I rubbed my eyes and looked around. It felt like I'd slept all night, but it was still dark. I switched my bedside lamp on, and looked at my watch. 8.24. No way. Had my watch stopped the night before or something? I got out of bed and walked out into the main room.

The lights were on, and my parents were both up, sitting at the dining table. My father was reading the newspaper, while my mother was just sitting beside him. She turned to look at me.

'Oh, Kit!' she said. 'Good morning . . . how are you?'

'Good morning?' I asked, and walked over to the balcony. I opened the door and stepped outside. A soft dusk was settled over the city, as if it were mid-evening. In the sky, I could see the top half of the sun, the bottom covered by a dark sphere. I heaved a sigh. Whatever Articuno had done, it sure wasn't going to just go away.

'It's eight-thirty, kid. Did you really just get up?'

I looked to my left and saw Taylor on the opposite balcony, eating a piece of toast. I glared at him.

'It's a bit hard to know what the time is with _that_ thing in the sky.' I pointed to what remained of the sun.

'So, are you up to doing something about it?' Taylor asked.

'Yeah. There's gotta be something left at that lab that'll lead us to Entei, and I'm gonna find it.'

* * *

When I headed downstairs with Taylor, his grandmother, and our four pokémon friends, my parents tried one last time to convince me to talk to the police again instead of going off on my own. But when I refused, they didn't actually stop me. They just stood and silently watched us leave. I knew that that was the closest I was going to get to actually receiving their approval to do this.

We drove to Taylor's farm, since it was right next to the Genesis Bushland. However, he didn't even stop to see his family, and instead we just left the car and headed straight into the bush. We let Connor lead us, since he knew the best way to where his pack lived.

I noticed a distinct change in the bush around us. It wasn't just because I'd never been there when it was dark. It was that we seemed to be totally alone. The whole place was silent, and there was no movement around us. I didn't see even one pokémon. It made me nervous, as if we were travelling in some kind of other world, where there was no light and no life.

When we reached the vulpix pack's underground home, Connor ducked his head under the blades of grass that hung over the entrance.

'_Hello?_' he called. '_Is anybody here?_'

'_Oh my goodness!_'

'_Prince Connor!_'

'_Prince, you're back!_'

Suddenly there was a flurry of movment, as several vulpixes and ninetales rushed out of the tunnel and began gathering around the white prince, some nuzzling him, others talking, some just standing and staring.

'_It's all right everyone, I'm fine,_' said Connor. '_I'm sorry to have worried you._'

It took a little while for his pack to stop fussing over him and calm down, but when they did, they finally spotted us. Many of them gasped and backed away, while others growled, their tails going stiff as they glared at us.

'_Humans!_' cried one young vulpix, hiding behind another.

'_Look out prince, they're going to capture you again!_' A ninetales stood in front of Connor.

'_Please everybody, calm down,_' said Connor. '_These humans are not our enemies. They're my friends, who rescued me from the human who captured me. And what's more, this boy and this girl . . . you've met them before._'

'_What? When?_'

'_It's them!_' one vulpix stepped forward. '_That's Kit and Taylor._'

I blinked, looking down at the vulpix. It took me a moment, because as a human, most vulpixes looked the same to me, but eventually I recognised him as Taggy, the scrawny vulpix who had broken into Taylor's torchic coop and had been the one who had introduced us to Connor in the first place. He was one of the few wild pokémon outside our group who had witnessed our transformations.

'_Kit!?_' a ninetales exclaimed. '_What are you saying, Taggy? That's not my daughter!_'

I gulped. I didn't even have to think about who this ninetales was before I recognised her. One look at her told me that her name was Violette, and that she was my mother.

I looked away. No! Don't be so stupid, Kit. Your mother was the one who said good morning to you an hour ago. Your mother was the one who you showed your transformation to last night, and she cried and hugged you and just wanted you to be safe.

I had avoided visiting the vulpix pack again, because ever since I'd started remembering things about life as a vulpix, I'd known that coming back here would mean having to confront those memories. And I hadn't wanted to do that, because I'd known that accepting the ninetales couple as my parents would mean renouncing my human parents.

But now that I was here, I realised it wasn't that I doubted who the humans I'd left behind in Spectrum City were. I knew that they were my parents. It was just that . . . at the same time, I had such a strong feeling that the ninetales couple Violette and Robi were my parents. I knew that it was impossible to have two sets of parents. I knew that one couple being my parents meant that the other couldn't be. But that didn't stop me from feeling that somehow, in some way, the two pairs were simultaneously my parents.

As I stared at Violette, another ninetales walked up beside her. I recognised him as my Robi, my father. He nuzzled Violette before turning to Connor.

'_I know it must be distressing for you to talk about, prince Connor,_' he said, '_but the human who caught you, his companion caught our Kit, and . . . we've been so worried about her. We finally found her after all these years, and then she was whisked away from us again. Tell us, do you know where the human took her?_'

Connor looked uncertain. '_Robi, I don't know if she really is your pup who went missing, but I do know that this human is the vulpix that trainer caught. She really does have the power to change between human and pokémon forms. I've now seen it with my own eyes._'

Robi raised his eyes to look at me, but stood still beside his mate. '_Then show us, human. Show us that you truly do have the power of Soulfire. Then we'll judge if you're really our daughter._'

I gulped. After deciding to show my human parents my ability, and seeing that the result hadn't been as bad as I'd thought, I felt like it should follow that I would also be safe showing these ninetales. But I was torn. I remembered when Connor had brought us to his pack before, and Robi and Violette had fussed over me, claiming to recognise me as their long-lost daughter. If I showed them my vulpix form now, they might do the same thing again. Would that be good or bad?

'_What about that other human?_' another ninetales asked Connor. '_Are you saying he's Taylor?_'

'_As I said with Kit, I can't say that for certain, because I never met your children,_' said Connor, _'but they do call themselves Kit and Taylor, and they do have the ability to change forms. That's as much as I know._'

If Robi and Violette recognised me as their daughter, and the memories I'd regained had caused me to recognise them as my parents, was there any room for doubt? If I showed them my vulpix form now, and they nuzzled and cried over me like a parent would over a lost child, would that be denying the concern my human parents had shown me yesterday? As much as my human parents could get on my nerves, I knew how much they cared about me, and I didn't want to do anything that would make their love seem false.

But in another part of my mind were the memories of these ninetales from far back, years back, long before I'd met Connor and had been introduced to the vulpix pack. Because those memories were of a time when I hadn't had to be introduced, as I was part of the pack. And in those memories, Robi and Violette also got in my nerves, in the way they'd stop me from going out and playing in the bush on my own. I remembered wanting so much to be free from their restriction, to be able to go out and explore the bush of my own accord. One day, after years of begging and pleading, they had finally let me. And that was where my memories of that life stopped. I had no recollection of my vulpix life beyond that point, no more memories of my ninetales parents. And the part of me that realised this wanted to return to them, to nestle in against their warm fur and tell them how much I'd missed them in all these years. Because I knew that the reason for the restrictions they'd placed on me was that they cared about me, too.

I put my hand to my forehead, taking a deep breath.

'Kit, are you all right?' Mrs Taylor asked.

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't feel like I knew anything anymore.

'_Prince Connor, is there any way to speak to these humans?_' Robi asked. '_If we can't ask them to show us this power, well you know I would never doubt you, but this is my daughter we're talking about. Unless I see it with my own eyes, I can't believe this human is Kit._'

'_They understand us,_' said Connor. '_I think their ability allows them to. But I don't think communication between humans and pokémon is as hard as we always thought anyway. I can understand most of what they say myself now._'

'_Then why don't you show us, human?_' Robi asked, turning to me.

I just stared back at the ninetales.

'Well, kid?' said Taylor. 'Do you wanna show them or not?'

I turned to him. He was actually asking for my opinion? Not just telling me what to do? That was rare.

'I'm willing to show Kane and Lailie,' he said, and folded his arms. 'But I think it's better we either both show them, or neither of us show them. We can't go telling them half the story.'

'_Half_ the story?' I asked. 'The whole problem here is that there are _two_ stories! How can we be their children if we have human parents? Whatever issues you have with your family, you can't deny that they _are_ your family. So if these ninetales are supposed to be our parents, then . . . then how does that work!?'

'I never claimed to have the answers,' said Taylor. 'But I know we're not gonna find them by just pretending none of these coincidences are happening. You're the one who's been wanting an explanation all this time, but you haven't done much to try to find one.'

I glared at him. What, so now it was my fault that we didn't know the truth about all of this? That was just stupid. I probably knew more about our situation than he did, since I'd been experiencing these memories of my vulpix life. Sure, they had brought about more questions than answers, but maybe they also meant that once we did start hearing some answers, I'd understand them better instead of them going over my head.

With that in mind, I knew that the only way to finally start figuring anything out was to start showing my ability to those I could trust, like my parents, whether human or pokémon. So, I kindled the flames in my heart and my hands, and melted into my vulpix form. In a second, Taylor had done the same, and we stood before the pack and our ninetales parents, as pokémon.

'_K—Kit!_' Violette rushed to me and bent down, nuzzling me with her long snout. '_But how did you . . ._'

'_It really is you,_' breathed Robi, coming over and also bending down to me. '_Oh Kit, we're so glad to have you back._'

'_You mean those humans are really Spiritfox and Soulfire!?_' one vulpix exclaimed.

'_Of course not! Spiritfox and Soulfire were pokémon who became humans, not the other way around!_' said another.

'_But they _are_ pokémon who became humans,_' said Robi, turning to look at the rest of the pack. '_This is Kit, my daughter. I know it was a long time ago, but I still remember the day she was born, and she was born a vulpix._'

I opened my mouth to object, to tell him that I had human parents who remembered me being born as a human. But I was shocked to realise that I didn't want to tell him that. Things were different now. The last time I'd come to visit the pack, I had rejected all of their claims about me being a part of them, because they didn't fit in with my own recollections of my childhood. But now, they slotted in perfectly. As I felt Violette's soft fur against mine, I remembered how she had cuddled me and groomed me as a pup. I didn't feel like I was somewhere I didn't belong. I felt like I'd just gone away for a long time, and had finally returned home.

I leant up to Violette and rubbed the curls between my ears against the thick fur of her chest.

'_I missed you,_' I said without thinking.

'_I . . . I missed you too, Kit._' Tears fell from Violette's crimson eyes.

'_Tell us, Kit,_' said Robi. '_What happened to you all those years ago? Why didn't you come home? And . . . how did you take on that human form?_'

'_I don't remember,_' I said.

Robi sighed. '_I'm sorry, I shouldn't be asking you about that straight away. You can take your time telling us. We're just glad to have you back._'

'_No, I really don't remember. Last time I came here I didn't even remember you were my parents. I remember a bit more now, but I still can't remember anything after the day you let me go out on my own. I only have human memories after that._'

'_You mean . . . you've been living as a human all this time?_' Robi asked.

'_Basically, yeah. But . . . I don't know, it's not like I just left you guys and became a human._' I paused, not sure if I wanted to tell them any more than that. But I had to. I had to stop keeping secrets from people I trusted, even if it could mean hurting them. '_I was a human before that too._'

'_You mean, you had the power to become a human even when you were living with us?_'

'_No. It's not that, it's more like . . . I don't know._'

'_Wait a second,_' said a voice, and I turned to see Taylor looking over at me from where he was standing with Kane and Lailie. '_I've been thinking about what you said last night about having memories of being part of this pack._ _It means you didn't just "become" a vulpix. It means you always were one._'

'_But that doesn't make sense. I think I'd _know_ if I'd had the ability to change forms my whole life._'

'_Didn't you just say you remember more now than you used to? Maybe you really didn't know you could change forms. Maybe whenever you were in one form, you forgot about being the other, and it's only now that you've started to have the same consciousness no matter what physical form you're in._'

'_But . . . but that's . . ._' I couldn't even think of a word to explain what it was.

'That is a possibility.' Mrs Taylor was standing a few metres away from us, a solemn, almost sombre, expression on her face. 'In human psychology there's a condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, in which a person may experience multiple identities without any common memories between them. It's believed to be caused by stress or trauma, and . . . I know how much stress and trauma you've both experienced as a result of these abilities.'

'_But that's psychology!_' I said. '_Even if that's true, that doesn't explain how we can physically change forms._'

'I know,' said Mrs Taylor. 'I wasn't offering that as an explanation of your ability, more like the other way around: that the stress of your ability is an explanation for why you blocked out the memories of your life as a vulpix. It's possible that you actually tried to escape from the stress by convincing yourself that there was no way your two forms could exist together, so you ended up completely separating them psychologically.'

'_So you're saying I've had this ability my whole life!?_' I exclaimed.

'If you really have memories of being a vulpix, then that's what it seems to be pointing to. The only problem with that is . . .' Mrs Taylor's lip quivered, and she turned to the ninetales that was her grandson. 'If those ninetales are your parents, Russell, then . . . then you're not really . . .'

Taylor's eyes widened, and his ears folded back.

'_No, Grandma! You know I'm your grandson!_'

'"_Grandma"? "Grandson"?_' Kane asked. '_What are you talking about, Taylor? Your grandparents died before you were even born._'

'_No!_' Taylor exclaimed, stepping away from the ninetales couple. '_That's my grandmother right there!_'

'_That human?_' Kane asked.'_But Taylor, you're a pokémon! I don't know what those humans did to brainwash you while you were living with them all this time, but surely you at least remember that!_'

Taylor just gulped, staring at the ninetales with wide eyes.

So, it's finally hit you, has it, Taylor? I shook my head. Ever since I'd found out he possessed the same ability as me, Taylor had been calm and comfortable about his identity. He had even referred to himself as being a ninetales while he was in his human form. He hadn't been experiencing the same anguish I had over who I really was. That had been the source of so many of our arguments: I had always wanted an explanation to set my mind at ease, while he'd been willing to just accept the situation as part of life.

I saw some sense to what his grandmother had said. Nobody wanted to live with trauma, so we all had our own ways of dealing with it. If my way to deal with it had been to block it out so that I didn't have to look for an explanation, maybe Taylor's way to deal with it had been the opposite: to embrace it, so that it didn't need an explanation to begin with. But now we were both beginning to see flaws in our ways of thinking. Because whether we liked it or not, we were getting closer to finding an explanation, and by the looks of things, being forced to accept that explanation could be the most traumatic experience of all.


	41. Chapter 40: The Lab

Today is a very special day! It's the tenth anniversary of The Vulpix Club on Yahoo! Groups. That's right, the club has been running for ten whole years! As part of the celebrations, I decided to do a double release of _Pilot Light_. So after reading chapter 40, you don't have to stop - chapter 41 is here too! (Of course, the fact that it took so long for me to release these probably makes the double release less exciting . . .)

If you're not already a member of The Vulpix Club, be sure to check it out! I've made a few other cool features for the club's birthday too. I can't post links here, so the best way to get to TVC is by going to the _Pilot Light_ web site (the "Homepage" link on my profile) and following the link from there. My name at the group is Foxfire_037, so be sure to say hi if you pop in. =)

**Chapter Forty ****– The Lab**

We didn't stay at the vulpix pack for much longer. In spite of how difficult our personal mysteries were for Taylor and me, we all knew that our immediate priority was solving the mysteries that would affect the whole world: the half-eclipsed sun in the sky, and how we were going to find Entei to set things right.

Our ninetales parents didn't want to let us go, acting just as my human parents had that morning. Connor, similarly, was concerned about what we were getting into, and asked if he should go with us. We assured him that it was more important for him to stay with his pack, and the other vulpixes and ninetales seemed grateful for this.

So the six of us moved out to find the lab on our own: Cam, Elsie, Rashmi, Taylor, his grandmother, and me. Taylor and I returned to our human forms after we left the pack. I think we were both in a lot of shock and confusion about just what our true relationship with that pack was, and at least as humans, we knew a bit more about who we were. Nonetheless, it was difficult to get back into our usual personalities with so many questions running through our minds. So we walked in silence.

I could feel the tension between Taylor and his grandmother, and I knew they were both thinking about whether they really were even family. A small part of me was glad that Taylor was finally going through the anxiety I'd been experiencing for a long time. But the rest of me, I was surprised to realise, felt sorry for him. Knowing the pain he was going through all too well, I couldn't really be glad to see him suffer, no matter how much of a jerk he'd been to me about my own problems.

'Here we are.' Mrs Taylor finally broke the silence after we'd been walking for about half an hour.

I stopped and looked around. We were now deeper in the bushland than I'd ever been before. But that was exactly what was so strange: we were deep in the bushland. Wasn't she supposed to be leading us to the site of her old science lab? My eyes had had plenty of time to adjust to the darkness, and I could easily see that there were no buildings in sight: only young plants and bushes, and the occasional tree stump.

'Are you sure this is the place?' I asked.

'Yes,' said Mrs Taylor. She pointed to a huge tree stump opposite us. 'That used to be the gum tree that hung over the lab. It was believed to be hundreds of years old, but it was destroyed in the fire. They had to cut it down.'

'That fire must have really hurt a lot of the native wildlife,' said Taylor.

'Surprisingly, the fire didn't spread very far,' said his grandmother. 'Even though it was fierce, it was contained in a very small area, mainly just the lab itself. A few pokémon had to be taken to the Pokémon Centre, but they only had minor injuries.'

'What about humans?' Taylor asked. 'Was there anyone in the lab when it burnt?'

'Yes, but they all escaped in time. It was only a small lab, so fortunately nobody was trapped inside.'

'Do they know what caused the fire? Was it from one of their experiments or something?'

'Experiments?' Mrs Taylor asked, blinking. 'It was a research centre. We didn't really conduct experiments, just studies.'

'Oh,' said Taylor. 'But conducting experiments is one of the ways scientists study, right?'

'It depends what you mean by "experiment". We were a pokémon research institute, so we had very strict ethical policies to make sure we weren't harming pokémon in any way. Our only "experiments" were of observation and interaction with pokémon. No chemicals or anything that could cause fires.'

'Are you sure?' Taylor asked.

His grandmother smiled. 'Russell, I may be old, but I'm not senile. I remember what I used to do in my job. And you know me. You know I wouldn't work anywhere that conducted experiments on pokémon.'

'Of course, Grandma, I know that,' said Taylor. 'It's just . . . I don't know, for some reason, ever since you brought it up yesterday, I've just had this image of it in my head. I mean, it's kind of weird. Why set up a science lab in the middle of the bush?'

'Because we were studying wild pokémon, and needed to be as close to their natural habitats as we could. I promise, Russell, I would never have worked for an organisation that harmed pokémon in any way.'

'I know you wouldn't, Grandma. I'm not saying you would. I just have this weird feeling about this place. Maybe it's because the Team Magma boss wanted to find it. We've got to figure out why he wanted to come here.'

'Obviously it's got to do with those Sun Shard things,' I said. 'He must be looking for them so he can use them to catch Entei just like he was going to use the Rainbow Wing to catch Moltres.'

'I really don't think we'll find any remnants of the Sun Shards here,' said Mrs Taylor. 'The lab burnt down ten years ago, so even if they survived the fire, I doubt they would still be here. But we can certainly have a look around. They should be very easy to spot in this light, because they shine like the sun, no matter how dark it is.'

'Then they're obviously not anywhere out in the open,' said Taylor. 'So let's all see what we can scour around for.'

All six of us, three humans and three pokémon, began searching the area. We brushed branches aside, got down on our knees to inspect bushes, lifted rocks to look under or behind them. After ten minutes, I was starting to get frustrated. Mrs Taylor was right: there was no way we were going to find anything left behind from a building that burnt down ten years ago. But it had been my idea to come here, and I was going to stick to it till I found something. The Team Magma boss obviously knew what he was doing if he'd sent Adrian to the Rainbow Tournament to get the Rainbow Wing. So there was no reason to doubt that he had just as sinister a plan this time.

The thought entered my head that I'd been wrong about coming here. The Team Magma boss had only said "the ruins of the lab", he hadn't said _which_ lab he'd been talking about. There could have been hundreds of labs in Aruto. I'd just assumed it must have been this one when Mrs Taylor had mentioned that they'd been studying Sun Shards here. It did make sense, but there was still a possibility that I was wrong.

I shook my head. No. I wouldn't let myself be wrong. I'd failed Ho-Oh too many times already. I was going to be right this time. I wouldn't rest till I'd found something, anything, that would lead us to Entei.

'What . . . is . . . _this_!?'

Startled, I turned to see who had spoken. Several metres away, I could see Taylor standing stiff, his eyes wide. Even in the dark I could see how pale his face was.

No way. _I_ was meant to be the one who found some evidence here! Why did he always have to take the glory? I narrowed my eyes and marched over to him, the others all gathering around him as well.

Taylor was staring at a large cube-shaped object. Weeds and vines had grown all over it, to the point where it was so covered in greenery that one wouldn't have even noticed it if they weren't looking hard enough. But as I peered down at it, I could see that amongst the plants were hard metal rods. They were covered in black char and and red rust, some bent out of shape and others stiff and straight. They were the bars of a cage.

Taylor took a deep breath, and put his hand to his forehead. He stumbled back a few steps, and his grandmother rushed to his side.

'Russell, are you all right!?' she exclaimed.

'_Taylor, what's wrong?_' Elsie stared up at her friend, her eyes wide and her ears folded down.

'That cage . . . I think I've seen it before . . .' Taylor backed up against a tree, rubbing his head.

'Where?' his grandmother asked. 'When? Why is it upsetting you so much?'

'I think I . . . was inside it.' Taylor gulped.

I bent down in front of the cage to look at it more closely. It was an awkward size: small enough for an adult human to be able to carry, but large enough to fit a reasonably sized pokémon inside. Of course, the pokémon would have to be cramped in tightly; there would be no room to move around like in the cage the police had locked our friends in the evening before. Taylor probably could fit in the cage, but he would have to curl up.

I reached a hand out to touch the bars, then gasped and pulled back. Those bars were red-hot! I blew on my fingers, then shook my hand, trying to cool off the burning sensation.

'_What happened, Kit?_' Cam asked.

'I don't know,' I said. 'It was like touching an oven.'

'_An oven?_' Cam asked. '_What's that?_'

'_That's something humans use to cook food,_' said Rashmi. '_It's very hot. But I've never heard of a cage that's hot like an oven._'

I paused, then turned back to Mrs Taylor, wondering if the scientist would have an explanation. But then I saw that her attention wasn't on us anyway: Taylor was now sitting against the tree trunk, still holding his head, and his grandmother was kneeling beside him, her arm around his shoulders. Elsie was lying on the ground, resting her head on Taylor's knee and looking up at him with concern.

'_Is he OK?_' Cam asked.

I gulped. I really didn't know how to answer that. I'd never seen Taylor like this in my life. He had always been cocky and confident, but now he was so scared and confused he was getting sick over it. Just what was it about this cage that was getting to him?

I looked at the cage again, and reached my hand out once more, this time slower. The air didn't seem to get any hotter as I moved closer. How could it really have been burning like an oven? I touched a shaky finger to one of the bars, and blinked. It wasn't hot at all. I wrapped my whole hand around the bar. It felt just like cold, rusted metal.

'What the?' I breathed. 'Just a second ago it was hot!'

'_Are you sure, Kit?_' Cam asked.

'What do you mean? Of course I'm sure! It was burning!'

'_Well it's just that . . . usually if something's burning, that doesn't bother fire-types._'

I blinked. He was right. Ever since the day I'd become a vulpix . . . or the day I'd realised I could become a vulpix, whichever way it was . . . things like fire and heat had stopped bothing me. So even if that cage had been red-hot, I wouldn't have pulled my hand back in shock like that. Had I just imagined it? No, I was sure I'd felt something. I was sure.

I began pulling at the vines that covered the cage, tearing them off till I had freed the cage from its own prison of plants. It was then that I noticed there was another, smaller cage buried in the bushes beside it. I tugged and ripped at those bushes as well, and soon I had uncovered the second cage. The metal door swung open slightly when I pulled off the last vine. I put a hand out to open it all the way.

Click. Click.

Brown fur. White coats. Screens. Machines. Pain . . . fear . . . excitement? Understanding. Confusion. Revulsion, anger, injustice.

Truth.

Click . . . click . . .

'_Kit!_'

I could barely hear the voice, as if it were just in my head, just my imagination. I couldn't tell what was real anymore. The darkness around me seemed to be blocking my senses, and all I could see, hear, smell, were fragments of memories, pieces of a story that didn't fit together.

But then I became aware of something shaking me. Shaking my leg. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I saw Cam looking up at me, his little hands on my leg.

'_You looked like you were going to pass out,_' he said. '_Are you OK?_'

'Yeah,' I said, though I wasn't sure that was true.

'What happened, Kit?' Mrs Taylor asked.

I shrugged. 'Nothing. I'm fine.'

Maybe "fine" wasn't the right word, but I didn't feel much different to usual, at least. I'd become used to my mind being in a whir, my thoughts jumbled, my memories in disarray. It was no weirder than any of the other things that had happened to me over the past few months. I sighed, and got to my feet.

'Whatever those cages are, I doubt they've got anything to do with Team Magma,' I said. 'We've gotta keep looking for—'

I stopped as my eyes caught sight of movement. The bushland had been so still and quiet that even the slightest sign of life stood out. And there, amongst the trees, I saw two dark figures coming towards us. In the darkness, they looked like the silhouettes of some kind of monsters: human body shapes, but with large heads and horns. I gulped, and took a step back.

But in only a few seconds more, I could make out the details of the figures, and I saw that they were indeed human. Their disfigured silhouettes were caused by the large hoods they wore as part of their concealing uniforms. But it was those very same uniforms that, once they came into view, made their wearers immediately recognisable to me.

'No way!' I exclaimed. 'You're meant to be in gaol!'

Rose of Team Magma scoffed. 'In gaol? What did we ever do to get us put in gaol?'

'Don't act dumb!' I yelled. 'The police came with their arcanines and everything to arrest you, I saw them!'

'I know they did,' said Rose. 'And I repeat: what did we ever do to get us put in gaol?'

'You're Team Magma!'

'Being part of Team Magma isn't a criminal offense,' said Adrian. 'Neither is catching Moltres. They had nothing they could keep us in custody for.'

'Wh—wh—what!?' I felt my anger heating up inside me. What kind of incompetent police officers did this city have if they couldn't even keep Team Magma locked up?

'You heard us,' said Rose. 'We're no more criminals than you kids are.'

'But you crossed the police barriers! I know _that's_ illegal!'

'Sure, but it's not something they can put you in prison for,' said Adrian. 'They just gave us a fine.'

No. This was ridiculous. Just when I thought these guys were finally out of our way for good, our police force had let them go free. I should have known not to expect the police to make things any easier; after the ignorance they'd shown about legendary pokémon, it was obvious they weren't the best people to be handling this situation. Now, not only had we not been able to figure out why they wanted to find the lab, but we'd barely even had time to explore the site before they'd arrived there themselves.

But wait! If they were here, didn't that mean this really was the lab their boss was talking about? Didn't that mean I'd been right about coming here? Maybe Adrian and Rose showing up wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. Before they'd arrived, we'd had no idea what we were even looking for, but maybe now we could get some information out of them.

'So why did you come here?' I asked.

'The same reason you did,' said Adrian.

'And why do you think we came here?' I asked.

'Now who's playing dumb?' said Rose. She turned to Mrs Taylor. 'Is this where the lab was or not?'

We all turned to the elderly woman. So, they really were looking for the same lab she had worked in, and they knew it. It had to be the Sun Shards they were after, it had to be!

'I'm not disclosing anything to you until you tell me what you want,' said Mrs Taylor.

'You'll tell us, or we'll make you tell us,' said Rose, and unclipped a pokéball from her belt. 'And believe me, you shouldn't take that lightly. My camerupt isn't the dope he used to be.'

'The only reason he evolved was that Moltres gave him her power!' I cut in. 'If you dare use that power to go _against_ Moltres . . .'

'Then what?' Rose asked.

I ground my teeth. 'I'll make you pay.'

'Do you seriously think you're any threat to us? Can't you see how much of an advantage we have over you? It'd make it easier for all of us if you just give up.'

'What advantage? Look how many of us there are compared to you!' I gestured back at my five allies: Cam, Elsie, Rashmi, Taylor, and his grandmother. We may not have been very strong on our own, but now that Leon – and Rashmi herself – had stopped working for Team Magma, the balance of power had shifted dramatically.

'Fine, then I'll show you just how easily we can even the odds,' said Rose. She put the pokéball she was holding back on her belt, and unclipped two more. She held one out in each hand. 'Ralts, Kecleon, return.'

Return? I blinked as a beam of red light emerged from each pokéball. I turned to where they were pointing, and saw the lights hit Cam and Rashmi. The two pokémon's forms turned red, and then merged with the lights, and were pulled back to Rose's pokéballs. The balls opened, sucked the glowing energy inside, and snapped shut. Cam and Rashmi were gone.

'Let them go!' I demanded.

'Why should I?' Rose asked. 'They're ours.'

'They are _not_!' I yelled, my blood boiling.

'Yes they are. That's one of the basic rules of pokémon: once a pokémon is caught, its DNA is linked to the pokéball used to capture it. All we had to do was get our boss to transfer Ralts's pokéball over to us.'

'But Cam is wild!'

'What, you've forgotten your little school excursion already?'

I drew in a breath. School camp at the national park. I _had_ tried to forget it, because the memories were all bad. It had been the first time I'd met Adrian and Rose and all of my troubles with them had started. But not only that. Cam had been there too, and Rose had captured him. Although I'd managed to free him, I'd just left the pokéball lying there for Team Magma to be free to take back. How could I have been so stupid?

'I think you get the idea,' said Rose, and I bit my lip. 'So, if you want the kecleon back, you'd better co-operate. Is this the lab or isn't it, Elanor?'

'How do you know my grandmother's name?' Taylor demanded.

'None of your business,' said Rose. 'Just answer the question.'

'Who _are_ you people?' Mrs Taylor asked.

'For the love of Arceus, don't you people understand a hostage situation when you see one!?' Rose said. 'You answer me or you never see the kecleon again, all right!'

'This has gotta be the place, Rose,' said Adrian. 'Why else would they come this far into the bush? It's not exactly the best time to be sightseeing. I say we start looking.'

'No!' I said. 'Give Cam and Rashmi back!'

'Rashmi?' Rose asked. 'What, you gave our ralts a name?'

'She's not _your_ ralts! And that was always her name, you just never bothered to ask! Camerupt and Poochyena probably have names too if you tried listening to them!'

'We listen to them all the time, and all they've ever said is "numel numel", "chyen chyen",' said Rose. 'What else do you expect us to call them?'

'You could have asked Leon to translate for you,' I said. 'But I doubt he would have helped you, with the way you disrespect pokémon. It's no wonder he abandoned you.'

I was shocked to hear myself talking as if I were on Leon's side. The charmeleon had caused me just as much trouble as Adrian and Rose had, if not more, and his opinions had angered me as much as theirs. The two humans and the charmeleon were all as infuriating as each other, and in a way that made it obvious why they'd split up: I wouldn't have been able to stand working with any of them either.

'We don't have time to argue with you,' said Rose. She put the two pokéballs back on her belt and unclipped her third one. 'Camerupt, come on.'

She tossed the pokéball, and the sturdy, two-humped pokémon appeared. He narrowed his eyes, snorted, and stomped at the ground with his thick hoof. I swallowed and took a step back. It was hard to believe that this wild beast was the same clueless, lazy pokémon we'd known as Numel. Then again, we'd seen what happened when Numel had used Focus Energy at the Rainbow Tournament, so we'd known he'd had this potential hidden somewhere inside.

I clenched my hands into fists. Now what were we going to do? Would we have to fight Camerupt to get Cam and Rashmi back?

To my surprise, instead of ordering Camerupt to attack us, Rose told her pokémon to start digging. The bulky creature grunted and began shovelling at the ground with his big hooves, kicking the dirt behind him as he tunneled down into the soil.

'What are you doing?' Mrs Taylor demanded. 'You can't go destroying the land like that!'

'What, do you think the Sun Shards are gonna just be sitting out the open?' Rose said, putting her hands on her hips.

I stared. I had been right. Team Magma was after the Sun Shards as well, and they'd tracked them to this area. Although I wanted to be glad that I'd figured out what they were up to, I couldn't be. Because the fact that they _were_ looking for the Sun Shards meant that we were going to be stuck in just as much trouble as we'd been in all along. I thought I'd found a glimmer of hope in Moltres's words telling us to find Entei, but if we were going to be competing with Team Magma to find Ho-Oh's other loyal follower, things were only going to get harder from here on.

'Poochyena, you help too,' said Adrian, and tossed his own pokéball, releasing his little dog pokémon. As she appeared, I noticed a glimmer of light on Poochyena's neck, and I looked closer to see that she was wearing some kind of collar, with a soft, round stone hanging off it.

'What's with the collar?' I couldn't help asking.

Poochyena puffed her fluffy chest up and smiled. '_I'm glad you noticed! It looks good on me, doesn't it? It's a present from Adrian for all my hard work!_'

I blinked. Adrian, rewarding his pokémon? Something didn't seem right about that. In all the time I'd known Team Magma, they'd been nothing but ruthless and selfish. But Poochyena _had_ always seemed very loyal to her trainer. Obviously, Adrian must have treated her totally differently to how he treated us.

That realisation bothered me. When someone was rude and hateful to me, I found it easy to hate them back. But when someone showed a friendly or compassionate side, even to somebody else, I couldn't really hate them completely. I didn't want to see that side of Adrian, because I wanted to keep on hating him for all the things he'd done to me.

'Poochyena,' said Adrian. 'I need you to dig like Camerupt. We're trying to find the Sun Shards.'

'_I'm on it!_' said Poochyena, and prompty began pawing at the dirt in front of her.

I ground my teeth. Did they expect us to just stand here and watch while they dug for the Sun Shards, and kept Cam and Rashmi captive? We weren't going to put up with that.

'Let Cam and Rashmi go!' I said.

'Why should I do that?' said Rose. 'You've got nothing to offer us.'

'If you let them go, we'll tell you where the lab really is,' I said. It was the only ammunition we had against these guys. If I could keep the act up, we might be able to get somewhere.

Rose eyed me. 'If this isn't where the lab was, then what are you doing here?'

'This is where Cam lives,' I said. 'We were just bringing him home.'

Rose scoffed. 'You expect me to believe that? I caught that kecleon myself in the national park, I _know_ he doesn't live in the Genesis Bushland.'

I blinked, pulling back. 'But—but he never lived in the national park! Someone just took him there because he's a native species and they wanted him to be protected. But he always lived in the Genesis Bushland.'

'Look brat, if you're gonna lie, you could at least make it believable.'

'But it's _true_!' I gaped at her. Even when I told her the truth she didn't believe me! 'Let him out now and ask him where he lives, he'll tell you it's the Genesis Bushland!'

'Yeah, and like we're gonna rely on _your_ translation of what he's saying. Just give it up, we know the only reason you'd be here is if this is where the lab was. Come on Camerupt, haven't you found anything ye—'

She stopped, and looked sharply up at the sky. In a moment, I heard a sound that had become all too familiar to me: a distant whirring, coming steadily closer. I looked up for some sign of the approaching machine, but I couldn't see anything against the dark sky. Then the air around me began blowing wildly, and I saw large spinning blades in front of the one half of the sun that continued to glow. As I squinted, I made out the shape of a helicopter, not unlike the one Adrian and Rose had used many times before, except that this one was pitch black.

'No,' breathed Adrian. 'He wouldn't . . .!'

'This is exactly why I told you we should've just gone straight to him!' said Rose. 'If we didn't, he was just gonna come after us!'

'Who?' I asked. 'Who is it?'

The door of the helicopter opened, and I saw two figures standing there. One was a pokémon. Although it had the general shape of a human, in place of legs it appeared to have a flowing white gown, and on its chest was a red triangular growth. Its slender green arms were holding the second figure, whose appearance was even more striking. It was a human man, or at least it seemed to be; barely any of his features were visible. He was wearing a thick, dark red coat and matching trousers, with heavy black boots and gloves. Beneath his messy dark hair was a black mask that covered the left side of his face. He had one arm around the pokémon's back and the other was clutching at his chest, which was heaving.

Adrian gulped. 'It's our boss.'


	42. Chapter 41: Taking sides

**Chapter Forty-One – Taking sides**

I stared up at the man who was Adrian and Rose's boss, and I didn't know whether to be scared or relieved. His actual appearance was quite sinister: he had a strong build, and the mask over his face and billowing cape behind him gave him a dark and mysterious look. But at the same time, he was holding his chest and panting, while his gardevoir supported him. He really didn't seem like he could be much of a threat to us even if he tried.

The man said something to the gardevoir, but I couldn't hear him over the whirring of the helicopter. The pokémon nodded, and closed his large red eyes. A soft glow appeared around both the pokémon and the man.

'What are you doing here?'

I blinked at the sound of the deep, husky voice. I could see the man's mouth moving, but there was no way I could have heard him with the way the helicopter's blades were spinning like that. It was almost as if I had heard his voice in my mind rather than with my ears.

'_That gardevoir is projecting the man's voice psychically,_' said Elsie. '_He must have very strong psychic powers. We'd better be careful._'

'I told you to come back as soon as you got Ralts!' the man's voice continued.

'Sir, we were going to!' said Rose. 'We just got it back now! We were just about to head back!'

'You were told to get her back last night! Do you think I have the time and energy to come looking for you!?'

'I'm sorry, boss,' said Adrian. 'I know we should have gone back when you told us to, we just thought, if we could get the Sun Shards first, we—'

'You directly disobeyed my orders! This isn't some kids' treasure hunt we're talking about! I want Moltres in my hands right now!'

Adrian gulped hard. Rose folded her arms and looked away.

'_You_ can explain yourself out of this,' she said.

'Well, the thing is, sir . . .' said Adrian. 'I know you told us to come back and discuss things with you, but we realised it would be quicker if we just followed Elanor Taylor herself here.'

'Here?' the man's voice asked slowly.

'Y—yes, sir,' said Adrian. 'This is the spot where the lab was . . . we think.'

The man drew in a deep breath, and clutched his chest tighter. The gardevoir opened his eyes, and put his arms more firmly around the human, the glow around them dispersing.

'Boss?' Adrian asked. 'Are . . . you OK? You really should have stayed at headquarters . . .'

'Shut up!' the man yelled, so loudly that I heard him even though the gardevoir's psychic voice projection had stopped. But then he said something else to the pokémon, who nodded and shut his eyes, the glow appearing around the pair once more. The man turned and looked at Mrs Taylor.

'Elanor,' he said. 'Is this it? Is this where the old lab was?'

Mrs Taylor just stared back at him. 'Who are you?'

The man laughed shortly. 'Is your memory as messed up as mine, or do you just not recognise me after all these years? I guess it's understandable. I'm not exactly who I used to be.' He coughed, winced, and clutched his chest.

'I don't recognise you at all,' said Mrs Taylor. 'Tell me, who are you?'

Then man paused, then looked at Taylor, then at me, and finally at his two subordinates.

'Are they the kids?' he asked.

'The vulpix and ninetales kids?' Adrian asked. 'Yes, that's them.'

The man looked back at us. I thought I saw a sinister smile curve on the small part of his mouth that wasn't hidden by his mask.

'How fitting that our reunion would take place in the same spot where it all began.'

'Wh—what?' I asked.

'You know Russell and Kit as well?' Mrs Taylor asked. 'But how?'

'I know them because they were the ones who ruined my life!'

'What is that supposed to mean?' I demanded. 'I've never even seen you before!' I gestured to Adrian and Rose. 'I didn't even know Team Magma operated in Aruto till these idiots started chasing me around!'

'Shut up, you stupid kid! You ruined my life at this spot ten years ago, and you're gonna pay for it!'

'What happened here ten years ago?' Taylor asked.

'Don't worry,' said the man, 'that's exactly what _you're_ going to tell _me_.' He turned to his pokémon. 'Gardevoir, use Teleport.'

The gardevoir nodded, then turned and looked straight at me. His eyes glowed brightly, and the world around me began to spin and fade. Although it was dark anyway so I couldn't really see what was happening, it still made me feel dizzy. I swayed and staggered back a step. When my shoe hit the ground, it made a sound; I was no longer standing on the dirt of the bush, but on a solid metallic surface. Then the whirring colours began to become brighter, more in focus, and finally they settled into the scene of a room around me.

I looked around quickly. Taylor was standing beside me, but everyone else was nowhere to be seen. We were in some kind of building, with fluorescent lights that took a moment for my eyes to adjust to after the twilight we'd been in just a moment before. The room was small, white, and had no windows; only one large, metal door.

But we weren't just in a room. We were in a section of the room that was separated from the rest, by huge steel bars that ran from the floor to the ceiling. Although it was much bigger than the ones we'd found out in the bush, it was a cage.

'What did he do!?' I demanded, and ran at the cage door, grabbing the bars in my hands and shaking it. But I knew it was useless. No human – or vulpix – could break through a steel cage.

'He's teleported us somewhere,' said Taylor.

'Obviously, you moron!' I said, spinning back around to him. 'But what's his problem with us!? I've never even seen him before! How can he go saying we ruined his life!?'

'He must have some reason. But I don't know if even he knows what it is. He said he wanted _us_ to explain it to _him_.'

'He can't go accusing us of ruining his life if he doesn't even know why! And he sure can't go locking us in a cage when we've gotta go find Entei! Have _you_ ever met him before? He was acting like he knew your grandmother. If this is all _your_ fault . . .'

'I don't remember ever seeing him before, but I didn't exactly get a good look at him either. He probably wore that cape and mask so we _wouldn't_ recognise him.'

'I'd recognise his _voice_ anywhere. It's the same guy who was speaking to Adrian and Rose on their intercom yesterday. I thought it was just rough 'cause of the static but that's actually what he sounds like. I know I'd remember a voice like that.'

'Unless you tried to forget it.'

'What?'

'I was thinking about what my grandma was saying about repressing bad memories. If something really did happen between us and that man ten years ago, and if it really ruined his life, maybe it ruined our lives too, so we've made ourselves forget it.'

'That's stupid. You can't just make yourself forget something. If something bad happens to you, that's even _harder_ to forget.'

'I'm not so sure. When I found that cage in the bush, it was like . . . I'd seen it before. I don't really know when, but it was like I remembered being trapped in it.'

'And now we're stuck in another cage. Wonderful.'

'I'm sure I've never been here before, though.' Taylor stepped forward and touched one of the bars. 'This place is obviously pretty new. It's so . . . clean. Not exactly what I expected Team Magma's headquarters to look like.'

'You think this is Team Magma's headquarters?'

'Where else would he send us?'

'It looks more like a hospital, or a prison. Or some warped combination of both. I mean, what kind of criminal headquarters has a no-smoking sign on the wall?'

I gestured to where two symbols were printed on the wall near the door: the standard picture of a cigarette in a red circle with a line through it, and another picture the same, but with the image of a flame in place of the cigarette.

'I don't think this guy's a normal criminal,' said Taylor. 'I'm not even sure he's a criminal at all.'

'Hello? He just kidnapped us and threw us in a cage! You've sure got some warped sense of what constitutes criminal behaviour!'

'But it's _why_ he's doing this that's making me wonder. Something obviously happened to him ten years ago that he's trying to resolve.'

'Having a motive doesn't excuse the crime. Especially when we've done nothing to him—or at least _I_ haven't. And even if I had, he can't go using that as a reason to catch Moltres and put the whole world in danger. That's just insane! If you're even gonna _consider_ telling me we should wait to see what he's gonna do like we did with Leon and the Rainbow Wing, I'm not even gonna bother trying to trust you anymore, 'cause you're obviously not on Ho-Oh's side in all of this.'

'I don't know what side anyone's on anymore, or if there even _are_ any sides,' said Taylor.

'Well we're not gonna find out by sitting around locked in a cage. We've gotta get out!'

'Fine, but we've gotta think about how we do this. It's not like we can just pry the bars open with our bare hands, unless you're a machamp.'

I glared at him. 'No, but I do have other powers. Doesn't fire melt metal?'

'You need a _lot_ of heat for welding metal. You saw how much it took to melt that ice in the volcano, and metal is a lot sturdier than ice.'

'Then _you_ come up with a plan, genius!'

Taylor looked around the room. 'Well, if we had something I could use to pick the lock . . .'

'You can pick locks?'

He shrugged. 'I haven't done it for a while but I used to as a kid.'

'Why am I not surprised that you were a little troublemaker?'

'Yeah, well it might just come in useful. Don't you have a hair pin or something?'

'No. Couldn't we weld your glasses into a lock pick?'

'Will you be serious for once?'

'I am being serious! I'm sure you could use the frames as a lock pick!'

'And how am I supposed to pick a lock if I can't see what I'm doing?'

'Your eyesight can't be that bad. You can see fine as a ninetales without glasses.'

'That's totally different.'

'How is it? You're the one who was always going on about being a pokémon and a human at the same time.'

'But my abilities still change depending on what physical form I'm in. And _all_ my senses improve as a pokémon. Don't yours?'

I stopped to think about it. I hadn't really noticed a difference in my eyesight as a pokémon, but maybe that was because I had pretty good sight as a human anyway. What I had noticed, however, was improved hearing, being able to hear sounds at much higher pitches. And even more so, my sense of smell as a vulpix was amazing. I had become familiar with each person, each pokémon, each object having its own distinct scent.

I guess it made sense that I had different abilities as a vulpix to what I had as a human; after all, I certainly couldn't breathe fire as a human! But why did other abilities, such as being able to understand pokémon speech, cross over the two forms? I was still far from understanding all of this.

'That's not the point, anyway,' said Taylor. 'We need something to pick this lock with.'

He began searching the pockets of his baggy pants. I put my hands in my own pockets, but there was nothing useful: only loose coins and a lot of fluff. I looked around the room itself, but there was nothing we could use. There were a table and chair against the wall, but they were bare. And the only thing on the walls themselves besides the no-smoking sign was a large air vent near the roof.

Just as I was looking at the vent, I heard a click, and the metal door swung open. Adrian was shoved into the room, grinding his teeth, his hands being held behind his back by a bipedal white and green pokémon. I blinked. The pokémon had a resemblance to the gardevoir we had seen in Team Mamga's helicopter, but was also quite different: instead of a flowing gown-like form, he had strong, well-defined legs. He had wide hips, a small torso and long arms with appendages that looked like blades.

I had never seen a gallade in real life before. The Ralts evolution line was scarce enough to begin with, but they needed a rare item to evolve into gallades. I couldn't remember what the item was, but I was sure it couldn't be found in Aruto.

'_Stop your squirming!_' the gallade said, giving Adrian another shove. '_You've lost all respect I ever had for you now that you've betrayed Master Marlowe._'

'Put him in the cage, Gardevoir!' the Team Magma boss's voice called. I peered behind Adrian and Gallade to see the boss, along with his gardevoir and Rose, in the room behind them. Gardevoir's eyes began to glow, and suddenly Adrian disappeared from Gallade's hold, rematerialising in the cage with Taylor and me.

'Boss!' Adrian shouted. 'Give me another chance! I'll get Moltres back!'

'I'm not your boss,' the man scowled. 'You're fired. I should never have trusted you _or_ your charmeleon. And as for you . . .' He turned to Rose. The woman gulped.

'It was all Adrian, boss!' she said. '_He_ used the masterball! _He_ lost Moltres! _He_ decided to try to get it back before–'

'And what did _you_ do to stop him?' the man shouted, then took a deep breath and held his chest.

'Well . . . I . . .'

'You're just as bad as he is. Gardevoir, lock her up too.'

'No, boss!'

It was too late. Within a second, Rose had been teleported into the cage with us.

'Boss! How can you do this to me!?' she demanded. 'After all I've–'

'After all the missions you've failed?' her boss asked. 'After all the orders you've disobeyed?'

Rose ground her teeth. Her boss turned to his gardevoir.

'Get Ralts's pokéball,' he said.

Gardevoir nodded. He held out one slender arm, and one of the pokéballs from Rose's belt hovered through the air and slipped through the bars. The Team Magma boss caught the ball in his gloved hand.

'Hey!' I shouted. 'Let Rashmi go!'

The man's one visible eye narrowed.

'Rashmi?' he asked.

'Yeah!' I said. 'That's her name!'

The man stepped forward, into the room. 'And how would _you_ know _my_ ralts's name?'

'She told us, because she's not _your_ ralts anymore. She's our friend.'

'Oh, is that right? Shall we see whose _friend_ Ralts is, boys?'

Gardevoir and Gallade nodded, both glaring at me. The Team Magma boss opened the pokéball, and with a flash of bright light, Rashmi appeared. She looked to her side, spotted Gardevoir, and smiled widely.

'_Brother!_' she said, and rushed towards the larger pokémon.

Gardevoir bent down and put his arm around Rashmi.

'_Are you all right, little one?_' he asked.

'_Now that you're here!_' said Rashmi, nodding.

I drew in a breath. I had been so sure that Rashmi was on our side now. But if her own brother was working for the Team Magma boss . . .

'Ralts,' said the man. The small pokémon raised her head and turned to look at him. 'This girl seems to think that you're her friend. But you would never be friends with someone who ruined my life, would you?'

Rashmi turned to me. I couldn't see her eyes from under her cap, but her lips were quavering.

'_It was you, Kit?_' she asked slowly. '_You were the one who hurt Master Marlowe?_'

'He doesn't know what he's talking about!' I said. 'I've never even seen him before!'

'_I'm sorry Rashmi, but it's true,_' said Gardevoir.

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'How would _you_ know? I've certainly never met _you_ before!'

'Calm down, kid,' said Taylor. 'Rashmi, listen to us. We don't remember what happened ten years ago, and by the sounds of things, neither does your "master". You can't just take his word for it that we did something bad to him.'

'_But . . . Master Marlowe would never lie._'

'You already decided to join us because Team Magma was a bunch of lying nasty criminals!' I said.

'_That was Adrian and Rose and Leon,_' said Rashmi quietly. '_Not Master Marlowe. He would never be nasty._'

'He locked us in a cage!' I exclaimed.

'_Then . . . then . . . you must deserve it!_' said Rashmi, and bit her lip.

'What!?' I cried. 'Rashmi, you–'

'I think it's clear to anyone just whose friend she is,' said the Team Magma boss, the revered "Master Marlowe". 'Come on, Ralts. You're back where you belong.'

Rashmi swallowed, then nodded, and turned her back on us. She followed Marlowe out of the room. Gardevoir followed, and finally Gallade, who shut the door firmly behind them.

'Rashmi!' I breathed. 'She . . . she really betrayed us!'

'She was never your friend to begin with,' said Adrian. 'You should've known you could never turn a ralts away from its trainer.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked.

'It's true that the Ralts family is known for being among the most loyal pokémon,' said Taylor.

'Not that Adrian knows anything about loyalty,' said Rose, shaking her head at her partner . . . or ex-partner. 'This is _all_ your fault! If you'd only listened to the boss instead of that stupid charmeleon!'

Adrian just heaved a sigh, and slumped down against the wall. He slipped his hood back off his head, then removed the dark visor from his eyes. I gulped. I could now clearly see him as the young man whose photo Officer Jeremy had shown me. He looked so . . . normal.

'What, so now you're just gonna sit down and give up?' Rose demanded.

'Look, if any of us want to get out of here, we're going to have to think of a plan,' said Taylor. 'Do either of you have anything I can use as a lock pick?'

I was tempted to interrupt, to yell at him that we shouldn't be asking Adrian and Rose for their help. But it was obvious now that they were no longer the enemies they once were. I didn't know what their personal goals in all of this were, but it was clear that Marlowe was the one who had issues with us: it was because of him that they'd been following us around and causing us trouble all this time. Without him barking orders at them anymore, they probably didn't have any reason to get in our way. Their plans for Moltres and Ho-Oh may have been a different story, but at least their antagonism was no longer personal.

'No,' Adrian muttered.

'Nothing at all?' Taylor asked. He looked around at us. 'Come on, someone's gotta have something small and bendable!'

'If we can't pick the lock then we'll just have to force our way out!' said Rose. 'Camerupt, I choose you!'

She tossed her pokéball, and her large newly-evolved pokémon appeared. He spotted the bars in front of him and instantly began ramming them with his head, not even having to be told. I glanced at Rose's belt. There was still another pokéball attached to it.

'Let Cam go,' I said. 'You don't need a hostage now that your boss has fired you.'

Rose scowled. 'That doesn't mean I'm willing to forgive you for all the trouble you've caused me.'

'What!?' I exclaimed. '_You're_ the ones who were causing trouble for _us_! We're not the ones who were trying to kidnap teenagers to conduct experiments on them!'

'Let's not argue about the past,' said Taylor. 'We all wanna get out of here, and releasing Cam may be the only way we can do it.'

Rose put her hands on her hips. 'And why would that be, smarty?'

'Because he can turn invisible,' said Taylor. He pointed to the door. 'Release him _outside_ the bars, and we'll have him wait at the door invisible. When your boss opens it, he'll sneak out and get help.'

Rose hesitated. 'What makes you think he's gonna open it?'

''Cause he wants something from us,' said Taylor. 'He's not locking us up to keep us out of the way, he's locking us up so he can come back for us later.'

'You know he's right, Rose,' said Adrian. 'I hate to admit it, but that kecleon could be our ticket out of here.'

'Whatever,' said Rose. 'This had better work.'

She took the last pokéball off her belt, pushed her hand through the bars, and opened the ball. Cam materialised outside the cage. He looked around, blinking, then spotted us and gasped.

'_Kit! Taylor!_' he said. '_What happened to you?_'

We quickly explained the situation, and our plan for escape. Cam seemed nervous but proud that he might be our only hope, and marched over to the door, turning himself invisible. He stood still, the small red zig-zag the only sign of his presence.

We waited in silence for a few minutes - well, silent except for Camerupt's grunts as he continued to headbutt the bars, and Rose's foot as she tapped it on the floor impatiently. Soon, my own patience began wearing thin. Taylor was right that Marlowe would be coming back, but when? And more importantly, what was he getting up to in the meantime? I had gone along with Taylor's plan because it was the only way we could convince Rose to release Cam, but was it really the best way for us to get out of here?

'I still say we try welding the bars,' I said. 'OK, sure, we'll need a lot of fire power to do it, but if Camerupt rams them after we've heated them . . .'

'Weld the bars?' Adrian asked, staring at me.

'Yeah, with our Flamethrowers,' I said. 'Cam and your pokémon aren't the only pokémon around here.'

'Are you insane!?' Adrian exclaimed.

I narrowed my eyes. '_You're_ one to talk about insanity.'

'No, you stupid kid! Are you trying to blow this place sky high!? You can't use an open flame in here!'

Adrian pointed to the no-smoking sign on the wall.

I gaped at him. 'We've been locked in a cage by a psychopath, Articuno is out there doing who knows what, the sun looks like it's dying, and you want us to pay attention to health regulations!?'

'It's not a health regulation, it's a warning about how not to get yourself killed! You see that vent up there? This building is being constantly pumped with high levels of concentrated oxygen! If you start a flame, you'll create a massive explosion!'

'I thought this place was your headquarters,' I said.

'It _is_!' said Adrian.

'Then why is–'

'It's also the only place Marlowe can stay for too long without collapsing.'

'What?'

'What, you didn't notice all the hacking and wheezing? Why do you think he always sent us to do his dirty work? He's got serious health issues. He hardly leaves this building. That's how I knew we were in major trouble when he came after us.'

'Fine, but if we can't break out of here then we're not just gonna sit around and wait for him to come back either,' I said. 'Why don't _you_ use the time to tell us what your ex-boss is planning!'

Adrian eyed me for a moment, then shrugged.

'He's after the Sacred Ash,' he said.

'Then why did he come after us!?' I demanded.

'When we told him about you, he said you must have the Sacred Ash,' said Adrian. 'Originally we were just meant to be trying to summon Moltres and Entei, but when he heard about you, he got a bit sidetracked.'

'Why are you telling them this?' Rose asked. 'After all this time them being our enemies, you're just gonna go spilling the plan to them? The boss was right, you should never have been trusted.'

'What's the point in keeping quiet about it now?' Adrian asked. 'He's not our boss anymore. There's no way he'll ever take us back. You know he holds grudges.'

'That's not the point!' said Rose. 'The point is that these brats have been getting in our way all this time, and now you're just calmly answering their questions!'

Adrian shrugged. 'See if I care if they know what Marlow's plans are. He didn't give me a second chance, so why should I give him one?'

'Then tell us,' said Taylor, 'why does he think we have the Sacred Ash?'

Adrian looked at him. 'Well, _do_ you have it?'

'Maybe,' said Taylor. I eyed him. What was that supposed to mean? Hadn't we just decided to work together with these guys? What was the point of lying or misleading them now?

'Whatever,' said Adrian. 'I don't care anymore. But Marlowe reckoned that was how you were able to become pokémon.'

'What!?' I exclaimed. 'You mean he . . . he _knows_ why we can do it?'

'You tell me. _Is_ that why?'

Taylor and I glanced at each other. Then Taylor pushed his glasses up and crossed his arms.

'Look, if you're gonna be honest with us then we'll be honest with you,' he said. 'We don't _know_ why. As far as I'm concerned, I've always been able to do it. But the kid here reckons she only started a couple of months ago.'

'When I touched H-Oh's ashes,' I breathed, suddenly seeing the links between what they were saying. 'The Sacred Ash . . .'

'Well, there you go,' said Adrian. 'Guess he was right. He may be a jerk but he's certainly not stupid.'

'But-but how would he know something like that?' I asked. 'Why does he seem to know us when we know nothing about him?'

'Yeah, and how does he know my grandma?' Taylor asked.

'No idea,' said Adrian. 'He never told us _how_ he got all his information.'

'Didn't you ask!?' I exclaimed.

'Look, you obviously don't know much about hierarchy. You don't go around questioning your boss's sources, _especially_ when your organisation's not exactly run through legit methods.'

I ground my teeth. This guy was almost as useless as he'd been as a Team Magma agent!

'Then at least tell us what he was planning to _do_ with the Sacred Ash,' said Taylor. 'Did he think he could use it to become a pokémon too?'

'No idea,' said Adrian. 'All I know is he's got it in for Ho-Oh.'

'Why?' I asked.

'Like I said, he never told us about his background.'

'He said _we're_ the ones who ruined his life,' said Taylor. 'Is that just because of our connection to Ho-Oh?'

'Beats me,' said Adrian. 'But he hates everything to do with that bird, so that could be it.'

'If he hates everything to do with Ho-Oh, why is he after the Sacred Ash?' I demanded.

'I just told you, I don't know.'

'That's ridiculous! You don't go signing up to join a criminal gang without knowing what its leader's plan is!'

'For a start, he's not the leader of Team Magma. He only runs the Aruto division, which only consists of us three–or _consisted_, I should say. Team Magma's run from Hoenn, by a guy named Maxie. Go tell that to your police buddies.'

'I don't care about Hoenn! Tell us what he's doing in Aruto!'

'_Secondly_, I don't know his master plan. I didn't join him 'cause I thought he was chasing some noble goal. I joined for my own reasons.'

'Then what were _your_ reasons!?' I asked, exasperated at his lack of answers.

Adrian turned away. 'None of your business.'

'I bet it was Leon, wasn't it?' Rose asked. 'You joined 'cause you let that charmeleon run your life as if he's _your_ trainer.'

'Shut up!' said Adrian. 'You don't know anything _about_ Leon!'

'I know that _he's_ the reason this all fell apart,' said Rose. 'If he hadn't betrayed Team Magma then neither would've you.'

'Yeah, well some of us have stronger loyalties than to some stuck-up maniac in a cape.'

'Yeah, well some of us have never had a chance to have loyalties! Not everyone got to have the dream childhood of being a pokémon trainer!'

'_That_ was a dream? Then I'd hate to see what your idea of a nightmare is!'

'Maybe if you woke up to yourself instead of being so full of self-pity, you'd find out!'

I watched as Adrian and Rose continued to snap at each other. Both of them had always been rude and nasty to us, and they hadn't exactly been polite to each other either, but I'd never seen them bicker pointlessly like this. Sure, we didn't know how to get out of here, but throwing scathing remarks around certainly wasn't getting anyone out of this cage.

The worst part was that their arguing was so close to home. It was exactly like the stupid fights that Taylor and I always had. Cam, Elsie, and Taylor's grandmother had always told us how our arguments weren't going to get us anywhere, but it wasn't till I'd seen it from an outside perspective that I saw how right they were. It was so hard to control my temper around Taylor, but maybe if I'd tried a bit harder, we wouldn't have continually been stuck in these hopeless situations.

Talking wasn't doing anything, and neither was waiting. Marlowe could be doing anything out there, and the longer we stood around arguing, the more he could be getting away with. Surely we weren't so hopeless that we had to sit around and wait for him to open that door for us.

Wait a second. Exactly why _were_ we waiting for him to open the door? Sure, the cage we were in was locked, but I hadn't seen Marlowe or his pokémon bolt the door to the room itself. Had all this bickering really made us miss something so blatantly obvious?

'Hey,' I said, turning to Rose and Adrian. 'If you can stop arguing for half a second, tell me this: is that door locked?'

The ex-Team Magma agents looked at me.

'The only rooms in the building with locks are Marlowe's private rooms,' said Adrian. 'This is just a storage room.'

I stared at him. 'Then _why_ are we waiting for him to open it for us?'

'Gee, maybe because we're locked in a cage?' said Rose.

'But Cam isn't,' I said, gesturing to the zig-zag over by the door.

'Look at the size of that door,' said Adrian. 'You reckon a kecleon can open that?'

'He can at least pull the handle!' I said. 'Then you can recall Camerupt and release him on the other side of the bars and he can push the door open while Cam holds the handle down.'

'I don't like your chances,' said Adrian. 'Even that handle is solid metal.'

'_We won't know unless we try._'

I looked back at the door to see Cam visible again, his eyes narrow with determination.

'_I'll do my best, Kit!_' he said. With that, he began scurrying up the door with the suction pads on his feet. When he reached the handle, he grabbed it in his arms and pulled.

Nothing happened.

Cam clenched his teeth and tugged harder, but the handle wouldn't budge. He swung around, holding onto the handle with his arms and dropping his body down so that he was hanging off. But still nothing happened. Cam heaved a sigh, and climbed to the ground.

'_I'm so sorry, Kit,_' he said.

'It's all right,' I said, though to be honest I was annoyed that my plan hadn't worked.

'Told you,' said Adrian. 'You need human hands to be able to open a door like that.'

'And all our human hands are in this cage,' said Taylor. 'Believe me, if it were as simple as opening a door and walking out of here, I would have done it by now.'

I was about to snap back at him, but I forced myself not to. I knew that wouldn't get me anywhere. I had to think about this. I was sure I was on to something with this plan. Sure, it was simple, but sometimes the simplest plans were the best. I just needed to figure out a way around our one main obstacle: that, as Taylor had said, all of our human hands were in this cage. We could get Cam, Camerupt or Poochyena out of the cage just by releasing their pokéballs outside the bars, but the humans were stuck. If only it were as easy to get humans out of here as pokémon.

. . . As pokémon?

'Wait a second!' I said. 'There's a way we can get a human out of this cage!'

'If you're gonna suggest welding the bars again . . .' said Taylor.

'Shut up!' I said. _This_ plan was gonna work, whether he liked it or not. 'We can get someone out of here the same way we got Cam out. Have either of you got a spare pokéball?'

'Of course I do,' said Adrian. 'But I don't see how that's gonna get us out of here.'

'I didn't say it'd get _you_ out,' I said. I pointed to Taylor. 'I'm talking about this guy. All we've gotta do to get a human out of here is have one of you catch him.'


	43. Chapter 42: Truce

So you know how on my profile it said "I'm sure there will never be any ridiculous waits like the two-year gap again"?

Chapter 41 released: 20 June 2009

Chapter 42 released: 19 June 2011

And here you thought I wouldn't keep my word!

. . . But in all seriousness, I really do need to apologise for the lack of updates of this fanfic. I won't bore you with excuses, but I do want to say that I appreciate everyone who's read this story in the past, those who are eagerly awaiting new chapters in the present, and those who are yet to read the story in the future. Every time I get a new review or am added to someone's favourites/alerts, I really do feel grateful - but also really guilty about the lack of updates. I noticed that many of the more recent reviews went into a lot more detail about what the reviewer liked and didn't like about the story, and I must say I really appreciate those who took time out of their lives to give me that feedback. It really has given me encouragement, as well as some points to keep in mind when writing more of this story in the future.

Phew, it's hard to believe this fanfic was first released more than 8 years ago. At the time, I never would have imagined I'd only be up to chapter 42 in 2011 - but then again, I'm not sure if I really imagined it would be finished by this point, either. Even now, I can't really say when I expect it to be finished - it might take another 8 years for all I know! - but I can say that I _do_ intend to have it completed someday. Not just because of the guilt I feel in leaving you all hanging for so long, but also because I feel that this is a story I need to tell. It's hard for me to explain exactly why I feel that way, but hopefully it will become clear eventually.

Well, I'd better stop rambling and just let you go ahead and read this. I hope you don't find this chapter too disappointing after such a long wait. It might be a good idea to go back and read some of the previous chapters so that you know what's going on - heck, I got a bit confused trying to get back into it myself!

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Two – Truce**

'Wh–what!' Taylor stammered.

'You heard me,' I said. 'We can all get out of here if you change into a pokémon, let one of these guys catch you, have them release you outside the bars, you change back into a human, open the door, and let Cam sneak out and find something to pick the lock!'

'As much as I don't wanna agree with you, that plan could actually work,' said Adrian.

'Of course it'll work!' I said. 'It's the only way!'

'Well if you're so confident, why don't you let them catch _you_?' Taylor demanded.

''Cause their pokéballs won't work on me,' I said. 'It's just like how Rose was able to recall Cam so easily: once a pokémon's caught, it's linked to that pokéball. And I hate to break it to you, but that means the only pokéball that's gonna work on me is Katashi's.'

Taylor clenched his teeth. He didn't have a comeback to that.

'Well?' Adrian said, getting to his feet and unclipping a pokéball from his belt. 'You up to it?'

'Don't you think this is a bit extreme?' Taylor asked, his voice jittery.

'Extreme!' I exclaimed. 'I'll tell you what's extreme: the sun has half vanished, and there's a madman and a crazy bird out there each with it in for Ho-Oh!'

Taylor took a deep breath, and turned to Adrian.

'Half an hour ago you were our enemies,' said Taylor. 'What's to say I should trust you now?'

'I was trying to capture you to follow Marlowe's orders,' said Adrian. 'There are two reasons you haven't gotta worry about that anymore. A: I'm not working for him anymore, and B: he's already captured you. I'm the one who should be worrying about trusting _you_. What's to stop you running out that door and leaving us here?'

Taylor looked at Adrian, his eyes narrow.

'So it's a truce, then?' the younger boy asked.

'If that's what you wanna call it,' said Adrian. 'If you promise you'll help us out of this cage, I promise I'll let you out of the pokéball.' He held his right hand out. 'Deal?'

Taylor was silent for a moment, then he slowly raised his own hand and took Adrian's.

'Deal,' he said.

The two shook hands. I gulped, my heart racing with nerves and unease. Taylor was really willing to trust Adrian. I knew that if it had been me who had to be captured, I wouldn't have agreed to it so easily. I knew in principle that it was what had to be done for ourselves, for Moltres, and for Ho-Oh. But when it came to actually doing it, to submitting yourself to the very people who'd caused most of the problems . . . that was something I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle. I didn't want to admit it, but Taylor really could be brave. As much as we argued on superficial levels, I knew he had a good heart. Perhaps . . . a better heart than my own.

'Let's do this,' said Adrian. He raised the pokéball in his hand and enlarged it to its full size. Taylor nodded, and took a step back. His body shrunk and he got down on all fours as he changed into his ninetales form.

'_Do it,_' he said.

Adrian threw the small red and white ball at Taylor. When it hit, I saw the pokémon's claws and teeth tense up. Then he relaxed, and let the glowing energy take him. He dematerialised into red light and was sucked inside the ball. The sphere dropped to the ground, went still, and the light went out.

Adrian stepped forward and picked up the ball.

'If only it had been this easy to catch you kids from the start, we probably wouldn't be in this mess,' he said, then sighed. 'But a deal's a deal.'

I swallowed. So, he was really going to do this. Adrian was really working together with us to get us out of here. The whole concept conflicted so much with my image of him that I wasn't sure how to feel anymore. Was this plan of mine really the right thing to do? Would working with Adrian only end up making things worse for us in the long run? I was so confused about who I could trust, so confused about what was right.

I watched as the man who had been my enemy for so long pushed his hand through the bars and opened the pokéball. In a flash of light, Taylor took shape outside the cage. When the light faded, he was standing firm, his paws tense, his eyes wide, and his mouth slightly open, breathing steadily. He stood like that for several seconds. Had he been thrown into shock by experiencing the numb transcendence of being inside a pokéball for the first time? Or was there a bit more to it than that? I remembered my own experience of being captured by Katashi. When I'd been released from his pokéball, I'd been confused about who I was. I had forgotten my life as a human, and had instead been invaded by memories of life as a pokémon.

I'd never understood what could have brought on those memories. What if it had been the mere fact that I'd been inside a pokéball? A pokéball was such a specific piece of technology, designed to synchronise directly with pokémon DNA. Pokéballs didn't work on humans, so maybe that was why I'd had to shut out my human self and let my pokémon self take over.

And if that was the case, then was the same thing happening to Taylor?

The ninetales took a deep breath, then looked around the room. When he spotted me, his eyes stayed fixed on me for a moment, then he lowered his head. He was silent for a few seconds, then he sighed, closed his eyes, and morphed into his human form.

Without a word, Taylor walked towards the heavy metal door, took the handle in his human hand, and pushed down hard. There was a small click, and then he pulled the door open.

'_All right,_' said Cam. He took a deep breath, and turned his scales invisible again. '_Here I go. Thanks Taylor._'

'Hold on, Cam,' said Taylor. 'I'm coming with you.'

'What!' I exclaimed. 'You wouldn't dare!'

'We had a deal, kid!' said Adrian.

'The deal was that I help you escape, and that's what I'm gonna do,' said Taylor. 'I may not be invisible, but what if there are other doors Cam needs me to open?'

'You'll get yourself caught and ruin everything!' I said.

'No I won't. I know how to stay hidden. I used to sneak around my grandma's work all the time as a kid.'

'You don't know how to stay hidden at all! What about that time you were following me in the bushes and–'

'If anything's gonna give us away, it's you shouting,' said Taylor. 'Come on Cam, let's go.'

'_Well . . . it's true that I might need you to open doors . . ._' came a voice from what appeared to be nothing more than a red zig-zag.

'Then let's go.' Taylor opened the door wider and stepped out.

'No you don't!' said Adrian. He held out his pokéball. 'Return!'

Nothing happened. Adrian shook the ball and tried again.

'Return!'

Still nothing. But it was too late anyway. Taylor and Cam had already left, the human shutting the door behind him.

'That stupid jerk!' I cried.

'What's wrong with this thing?' Adrian asked, shaking his pokéball. 'Why wouldn't it work?'

'Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?' Rose asked. 'Since when do pokéballs work on humans?'

'But he's not _just_ a human, he's a pokémon!' said Adrian. 'Why shouldn't it work? Pokéballs still work on dittoes when they're transformed!'

He had a point. If we really were both human _and_ pokémon, wouldn't it make sense that pokémon technology worked on us, no matter what form we were in? Yet we'd just discovered that pokéballs didn't work on us as humans. I was beginning to see more and more flaws in the logic of Taylor's little philosophy about being both a human and a ninetales at the same time.

Adrian ground his teeth and put the empty pokéball back on his belt. He then unclipped the other, full pokéball, eyed it for a moment, then looked back at the metal door, glaring.

'If only that brat hadn't shut the door I could've let Poochyena out and _she_ could've found the keys to this cage,' he muttered. 'She actually knows her way around this place.'

'Then why didn't you do that in the first place!' I exclaimed.

'Because I made the stupid mistake of trusting your friend!'

'More like you were too much of a wuss to let Poochyena out there on her own,' said Rose.

'Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about,' said Adrian.

'Poochyena would have been perfect to send out there,' I said, annoyed at myself for not realising this sooner. 'She's a dark-type, so Gallade and Gardevoir's psychic attacks won't work on her.'

'It's not as simple as that,' said Adrian. 'Gallade is part fighting. But either way, she would've been better off than your stupid friend who just wants to be a hero.'

'If you'd let her evolve she'd probably even be able to handle Gallade,' said Rose. 'She probably will in a few more battles if you take that everstone off.'

'What, you want her to turn into something like that?' Adrian scoffed, gesturing at where Camerupt was taking another run-up to charge at the bars. As the pokémon slammed his head into the metal, Adrian shook his head. 'Evolution. Who needs it?'

'You just don't know how to handle evolved pokémon,' said Rose. 'We wouldn't even be _in_ this mess if you'd kept your charmeleon under control. The thing's not even a charizard and you can't stand up to him.'

'Wait a sec,' I cut in, '_your_ charmeleon? I thought Leon was wild.'

'He is,' said Adrian.

'He shouldn't be,' said Rose.

'It was my choice to release him,' said Adrian. 'I did what _I_ thought was right. I didn't even know you then, so it's none of your business.'

'You mean . . . Leon . . .?' I breathed. I found myself staring at Adrian. So, after all Leon's talk about hating humans, he'd really once been . . .

'What, you think I really went and got a fake ID made just so I could enter that tournament?' Adrian asked. He took his wallet out of his pocket and showed me his trainer card once more. 'It's genuine, kid. Professor Oak really did certify me to become a trainer in Kanto. And the starter pokémon he gave me was a charmander.'

'Y–you're Leon's trainer!' I exclaimed.

'_Ex_-trainer,' said Adrian. 'After he evolved, he became so vicious. Then he learned to talk, and . . . he told me it was unfair for me to keep him in a pokéball, so I destroyed it.'

'You . . . did that just 'cause he told you to?' I asked slowly. I couldn't believe that someone as villainous as Adrian could have such respect for his pokémon's wishes.

'It made sense at the time, but I think giving him his freedom might've just made him worse,' said Adrian. 'He was so timid as a charmander.'

'Why are you still working together if you released him?' I asked. 'He kept talking about how he hates humans yet he's still working with his old trainer?'

'Since when is he still working with us?' Rose asked. 'He was probably planning to betray us all along.'

'It's not about us, it's about Moltres,' said Adrian. He eyed Rose for a moment, then he sighed. 'OK, fine. You were right. I _did_ join Team Magma because of Leon. It was because he wanted to find Moltres.'

'But why?' I asked. 'What was he after?'

'I dunno, he wouldn't tell me.'

'You joined a criminal organisation 'cause your charmeleon wanted to find a legendary pokémon and you didn't even think to ask _why_!'

'I thought that if I helped him find Moltres he might forgive me for being a bad trainer, all right!'

Rose and I were both silent at Adrian's outburst. He paused, as if just realising what he'd said, then he sighed and lowered his head.

As frustrating as it was to deal with the physical restrictions of being locked in this cage, I was beginning to wonder if the mental confrontations were just as profound. In all the time I'd known him, I'd seen Adrian as nothing but a villain, an enemy. But now I was noticing something that should have been obvious all along: he was still human. Under the hood, behind the visor, he was a living creature with reasons, emotions, and a past. It didn't mean that what he'd done to me or Cam or Moltres was right. But it did mean that nothing in this whole conflict was as simple as "good" or "bad".

Adrian sighed. 'All I know is that he was looking for Moltres before Professor Oak's assistant captured him to give him to me. That's why he hates humans, 'cause they stopped him from doing that.'

'And I've told you that's a lie,' said Rose. 'The official League-endorsed professors don't catch their starter pokémon, they get them from breeders. That's why they obey new trainers so easily: 'cause they're not wild.'

'I only know what Leon told me.'

'And I'm telling you, he made it up. You even said yourself he was timid as a charmander. If he'd been wild all along, he would've rebelled right from the start.'

'I don't know. He was weak as a charmander. I don't think he had the strength to rebel. It took him so long to evolve. I was already on my sixth badge by the time it happened.'

'You need eight badges to get into the Pokémon League, right?' I asked.

'Yeah,' said Adrian. 'Most trainers' starter pokémon are already on their final evolution by the time they reach six badges.'

'Did you ever get all eight?' I couldn't help asking. It was so weird hearing him talk about being a genuine pokémon trainer, and I felt a strange urge to know just how far he'd made it.

Adrian eyed me for a moment. 'No.'

Rose shook her head. ''Cause you couldn't handle Leon once he evolved so you gave up, right?'

'Shut up!' Adrian snapped. 'It wasn't like that. It was just . . . my priorities changed.'

'You decided to join a criminal gang instead?' I said, folding my arms.

'Both of you can stop trying to act like you understand, 'cause you _don't_,' said Adrian, shaking his head. 'And I don't hear either of you sharing _your_ life stories, so stop acting like you're so much better than me.'

Rose scoffed and turned her head. I glanced at Adrian for a long moment before looking down at the ground.

Some part of me wished that I _could_ share my life story. Not because I wanted to get any closer to these two criminals who'd caused me so much trouble over the last few months. Just because I wished that I understood my own life enough to be able to explain it to someone. As it was, I felt like my life was somehow a mixture of two stories rather than one, yet neither of them was complete. My life as a human and my life as a vulpix . . . they felt so separate, so incompatible, yet they were both my own life . . . weren't they?

'_Kit!_'

Before I could get too deeply immersed in my thoughts, I became aware of a hushed voice whispering my name. When I looked outside the bars to see where it had come from, I saw a small white pokémon.

'Rashmi!' I exclaimed. 'What are you . . .' I narrowed my eyes. 'Let me guess, your precious Master Marlowe ordered you to come here.'

Rashmi lowered her head. '_Actually I . . . I came here to . . ._' She pulled her hand out from behind her back. She was holding a small silver key.

'They key!' Adrian exclaimed. He held his hand out. 'Here, Ralts. Come on, be a good pokémon . . .'

'Will you shut up?' I said. 'I'll handle this. Rashmi, are you really . . . gonna let us out?'

Rashmi bit her lip, and nodded her big head.

'_I . . . I know it's wrong to disobey Master Marlowe, and I'll be punished, but . . . but you were the first people besides Master Marlowe and my brothers who were nice to me . . . so . . . so I don't want you and Tay . . ._' Rashmi suddenly narrowed her eyes. '_Where's Taylor?_'

I felt my enlightened spirit drop straight back down. What was I supposed to say to _that_? Rashmi had gathered all her courage to go against the one she obviously respected and admired so much . . . and now I had to tell her that we'd already developed a plan to break free of him?

That idiot Taylor! This was all his fault! If he'd only let Cam go out on his own like I'd told him to . . .

'_Kit!_' said Rashmi. '_Where's Taylor? I know he can't use Teleport!_'

'I . . . he . . . he's in Adrian's pokéball!' I blurted out.

'What?' Adrian asked. I shot him a glare, hoping that he'd get the idea and play along.

'Yeah, I know it sounds weird,' I said, turning back to Rashmi, 'but when I first got caught in a pokéball, I started remembering some things about being a vulpix. So we thought if we caught _him_, he'd start remembering stuff too, and–'

'_You're lying,_' said Rashmi.

'It's true!' I said. 'Tell her, Adrian! Didn't you catch Taylor in your pokéball?'

'Um, yeah, but . . .'

'_I can tell you're lying, Kit!_' said Rashmi. '_My psychic powers might not be strong enough to read minds, but I can tell from your voice and your eyes that you're lying!_'

'_What's going on in here?_' another voice boomed. The large door was thrown open, and Gallade stepped into the room.

Rashmi gulped. She quickly turned to the key she was holding. Her eyes glowed for a second under her green cap, then the key disappeared.

'_Rashmi_!' said Gallade. '_What are you doing in the prisoners' room?_'

'_I . . . I . . . they . . . one of them has escaped_!' Rashmi gasped.

'Rashmi!' I cried. 'How could you . . .'

'_Where is the other boy?_' Gallade asked, narrowing his eyes as he scanned them around the cage.

'What's happening?' Adrian asked. 'What are they yelling about?'

I ground my teeth. 'They wanna know where that self-centred idiot is.'

'_WHERE IS HE?_' Gallade shouted, grabbing the bars of the cage so hard that they rattled.

I gulped and took a step back. Now I could see just what Adrian had been referring to when he'd said that Gallade was part fighting-type. I knew that psychic pokémon were powerful, but their skills were much more subtle; sometimes you couldn't even tell a psychic-type was using a move unless you were on the receiving end. Fighting-types, though . . . they were much more overt, more brutal about their strength. I didn't know what Gardevoir could do to my mind, but it was plainly clear that Gallade could break my body in two. And that type of more immediate threat was something that wasn't easy to stand up to.

Gallade growled, kicked at the bars with one of his slender yet muscular legs, then turned his back on us.

'_Rashmi!_' he said. '_You guard them and make sure no _more_ of them escape! I'll find that boy and teach him a lesson!_'

He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him with a boom so loud I thought the building might collapse. Biting my lip, I took a look down at where the pokémon had kicked the cage. The metal bar his foot had connected with was now twisted out of shape, bearing a clear imprint of Gallade's round foot.

Taylor had it in for him when I got to give him a piece of my mind, but that was the least of his troubles. Once Gallade got to him, he'd show Taylor even less mercy than I would.


End file.
